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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at|http: //books .google .com/I "1 i / 1 /ivate Library •! BRADSHAW H. SWALES. DETROIT* - MICH. SEP 2^ 1906 ^iuseums 60 I THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO Sr*v::--c]L->rjir'. ^^ MAY AIU'HIl'RLAdO •i I I'll \ !A\ \M- • i. : !.:• :j ' !' vw • -;^.. \v .., > . \\]t ' • J <. *. ■'A' A i 1 \ .• , • l-rlvate Library at >-^^^V H. SWALKf MALAY AECHIPELAGO THE LAKD OF THE ORANG-UTAN AND THE BIED OF PARADISE A NAERATIVE OF TRAVEL WITH STUDIES OF MAN. AND NATURE ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE MACMILLAN AND CO.. Limited NKW YORK : TUB MACMILLAN COHPANT 1902 Atl riffhu ttatTHtL Richard Clat akd Sohs, Limited, lomdok akd bunoay. Fir^ Edition (2 vols, crown &vo) February 1869. , . Reprinted October 1809. ■JVee» Edition (1 voL extra crown 8vo) 1890, 1898, 1894, 1898, 1902. Private Library ef BRASSHAW H. SWALBS, DETROIT, - MICH. TO CHARLES DARWIN AUTHOR OF ''THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES" i 2)cdicate tbf0 JSooft NOT ONLY AS A TOKEN OF PERSONAL ESTEEM AND FRIENDSHIP BUT ALSO TO EXPRESS MY DEEP ADMIRATION Jot 1)f6 (3eniu0 and bis TSIlorfid 0^ \ 7-1 If- 3^ PREFACE TO THE TENTH EDITION Since this work was first published, twenty-one years ago, several naturalists have visited the Archipelago ; and in order to give my readers the latest results of their researches I have added footnotes whenever my facts or conclusions have been modified by later discoveries. I have also made a few verbal alterations in the text to correct any small errors or obscurities. These corrections and additions are however not numerous, and the work remains substantially the same as in the early editions. I may add that my complete collections of birds and butterfliea are now in the British Museum. Parkstone, Dorset, October, 1890. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION My readers will naturally ask why I have delayed writing this book for six years after my return ; and I feel bound to give them full satisfaction on this point. When I reached England in the spring of 1862, 1 found myself surrounded by a room full of packing-cases, containing the col- lections that I had from time to time sent home for my private use. These comprised nearly three tliousand bird-skins, of about a thousand species ; and at least twenty thousand beetles and butterflies, of about seven thousand species ; besides some quad- rupeds and land -shells. A large proportion of these I had not seen for years ; and in my then weak state of healtli, the un- packing, sorting, and arranging of such a mass of specimens occupied a long time. I very soon decided, that until I had done sometliing towards naming and describing the most important groups in my col- lection, and had worked out some of the more interesting problems of variation and geographical distribution, of which I had had glimpses while collecting them, I would not attempt to publish my travels. I could, indeed, at once have printed my notes and journals, leaving all reference to questions of natural history for a future work ; but I felt that this would be as unsatisfactory to myself as it would be disappointing to my friends, and uninstructive to the public. Since my return, up to 1868, I have published eighteen papers, in the Transactions or Proceedings of the Linnaean Zoological and Entomological Societies, describing or cata- loguing portions of my collections ; besides twelve others PREFACE ix in various scientific periodicals, on more general subjects connected with them. Nearly two thousand of my Coleoptera, and many hundreds of my butterflies, have been already described by various eminent naturalists, British and foreign ; but a much larger number remains undescribed. Among those to whom science is most indebted for this laborious work, I must name Mr. F. P. Pascoe, late President of the Entomological Society of London, who has almost completed the classification and description of my large collection of Longicorn beetles (now in his possession), comprising more than a thousand species, of which at least nine hundred were previously undescribed, and new to European <»ibinets. The remaining orders of insects, comprising probably more than two thousand species, are in the collection of Mr. William WiLson Saunders, who has caused the larger portion of them to be described by good entomologists. The Hymenoptera alone Amounted to more than nine hundred species, among which were two hundred and eighty different kinds of ants, of which two hundred were new. The six years' delay in publishing my travels thus enables nie to give what I hope may be an interesting and instructive sketch of the main results yet arrived at by the study of my collections ; and as the countries I have to describe are not much visited or written about, and their social and physical conditions are not liable to rapid change, I believe and hope that my readers will gain much more than they will lose, by not having read my book six years ago, and by this time perhaps forgotten all about it. I must now say a few words on the plan of my work. My journeys to the various islands were regulated by the seasons and the means of conveyance. I visited some islands two or three times at distant intervals, and in some cases had to make the same voyage four times over. A chronological ar- rangement would have puzzled my readers. They would never X PREFACE have known where they were ; and my frequent references to the groups of islands, classed in accordance with the peculiarities of their animal productions and of their human inhabitants, would have been hardly intelligible. I have adopted, there- fore, a geographical, zoological, and ethnological arrangement, passing from island to island in what seems the most natural succession, while I transgress the order in which I myself visited them as little as possible. I divide the Archipelago into five groups of islands, as follow : — I. The Indo-Malay Islands : comprising the Malay Penin- sula and Singapore, Borneo, Java, and Sumatra. II. The Timor Group: comprising the islands of Timor, Flores, Sumbawa, and Lombock, with several smaller ones. III. Celebes : comprising also the Sula Islands and Bouton. rV. The Moluccan Group: comprising Bouru, Ceram, Batchian, Gilolo, and Morty ; with the smaller islands of Temate, Tidore, Makian, Kaioa, Amboyna, Banda, Goram, and Matabello. V. The Papuan Group : comprising the great island of New Guinea, with the Aru Islands, Mysol, Salwatty, Waigfiou, and several others. The Ke Islands are de- scribed with this group on account of their ethnology, though zoologically and geographically they belong to the Moluccas. The chapters relating to the separate islands of each of these groups are followed by one on the Natural History of that group ; and the work may thus be divided into live parts, each treating of one of the natural divisions of the Archipelago. The first chapter is an introductory one, on the Physical Geography of the whole region ; and the last is a general sketch of the Eaces of Man in the Archipelago and the sur- rounding countries. With this explanation, and a reference to the Maps which illustrate the work, 1 trust that my readers PREFACE xi will always know where they are, and in what direction they are going. I am well aware that my book is far too small for the extent of the subjects it touches upon. It is a mere sketch ; but so far as it goes I have endeavoured to make it an accurate one. Almost the whole of the narrative and descriptive x>ortions were written on tlie spot, and have had little more than verbal alterations. The chapters on Natural History, as well as many passages in other parts of the work, have been written in the hope of exciting an interest in the various questions connected with the origin of species and their geographical distribution. In some cases I have been able to explain my views in detail ; while in others, owing to the greater complexity of the subject, I have thought it better to confine myself to a statement of the more interesting facts of the problem, whose solution is to be found in the principles developed by Mr. Darwin in his various works. The numerous illustrations will, it is believed, add much to the interest and value of the book. They have been made from my own sketches, from photographs, or from speci- mens ; and such subjects only have been chosen as would really illustrate the narrative or the descriptions. I have to thank Messrs. Walter and Henry Woodbury, whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making in Java, for a number of photog^phs of scenery and of natives, which have been of the greatest assistance to me. Mr. William Wilson Saunders has kindly allowed me to figure the curious horned flies y and to Mr. Pascoe I am indebted for a loan of two of the very rare Longicorns which appear in the plate of Bornean beetles. All the other specimens figured are in my own collection. As the main object of all my journeys was to obtain specimens of natural history, both for my private collection and to supply duplicates to museums and amateurs, I will give a general statement of the number of specimens I collected, and which reached home in good condition. I must premise that I xii PREFACE generally employed one or two, and sometimes three Malay servants to assist me ; and for three years liad the services of a young Englishman, Mr. Charles Allen. I was just eight years away from England, but as I travelled about fourteen thousand miles within the Archipelago, and made sixty or seventy separate journeys, each involving some preparation and loss of time, I do not think that more than six years were really occupied in collecting. I find that my lAstem collections amounted to : 310 specimens of Mammalia. 100 - Reptiles. 8,060 - Birds. 7,600 - Shells. 13,100 - Lepidoptera. 83,200 - Coleoptera. 13,400 - other Insects 125,660 specimens of natural history. It now only remains for me to thank all those friends to whom I am indebted for assistance or information. My thanks are more especially due to the Council of the Royal Greogp'aphical Society, through whose valuable recommendations I obtained important aid from our own Government and from that of Holland ; and to Mr. William Wilson Saunders, whose kind and liberal encouragement in the early portion of ray journey was of great service to me. I am also greatly indebted to Mr. Samuel Stevens (who acted as my agent), both for the care he took of my collections, and for the untiring assiduity with which he kept me supplied, both with useful information, and with whatever necessaries I required. I trust that these, and all other friends who have been in any way interested in my travels and collections, may derive from the perusal of my book some faint reflexion of the pleasures I myself enjoyed amid the scenes and objects it describes. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. Physical Geography 1 INDO-MALAY ISLANDS II. Singapore 15 III. Malacca and Mount Ophir 19 IV. Borneo — The Orang-Utan 26 V. Borneo — Journey in the Interior 49 VI. Borneo— The Dyaks 67 VII. Java 72 VIII. Sumatra 93 IX. Natural History of the Indo-Malay Islands .... lOtf THE TIMOR GROUP X. Bali and Lombock 115 XI. Lombock — Manners and Customs 125 XII. Lombock — How the Rajah took the Census 136 XIII. Timor 141 XIV. Natural History of the Timor Group 155 THE CELEBES GROUP XV. Celebes— Macassar 162 XVI. Celebes — Macassar 175 XVII. Celebes — Menado 185 XVIIl. Natural History of Celebes 207 xiv CONTENTS THE MOLUCCAS CHAP. PAGE XIX. Bakda 219 XX. Amboyna 228 XXI. Teknate 234 XXII. GiLOLO 240 XXIII. Voyage to the Kaioa Islands and Batchian . . . 244 XXIV. Batchian 250 XXV. Ceram, Goram, and the Matabello Islands . . . 267 XXVI. BouRU 293 XXVII. The Natural History of the Moluccas 299 THE PAPUAN GROUP , XXVIII. Macassar to the Aru Islands in a Native Prau . 308 XXIX. The KA Islands 317 XXX. The Aru Islands — Residence in Dobbo 327 XXXI. The Aru Islands — Journey and Residence in the Interior 337 XXXII. The Aru Islands — Second Residence in Dobbo . . 361 XXXIII. The Aru Islands — Physical Geography and Aspects OF Nature • 369 XXXIV. New Guinea— Dorey 376 XXXV. Voyage from Ceram to Waigiou 391 XXXVI. Waigiou 400 XXXVII. Voyage from Waigiou to Ternate 410 XXXVIII. The Birds of Paradise 419 XXXIX. Natural History of the Papuan Islands 440 XL. The Races of Man in the Malay Archipelago . . 446 APPENDIX ON Crania and Languages 459 INDEX 497 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS DRAWN 1. Orang-XJtan attacked by Dyaks 2. RareJems on Mount Ophir. {From specimens) 3. Remarkable Bomean Beetles 4. Flying Frog. [Froin a drawing hy the Avihor) 5. Female Orang-Utan. {From a photograph by Woodbury) 6. Portrait of a Dyak Youth. {From sketch and photographs) 7. Dyak Suspension-bridge. {From a sketch by the Author) 8. Vanda Lowii. {From specimens) 9. Remarkable Forest-trees. {From a sketch by the Author) 10. Ancient Bas-relief. {From a specimen in possession of the AtUhor) 1 1. Portrait of a Javanese Chief. {From a photo- graph) 12. The Calliper Butterfly (Charaxes Kadcnii) . IS. Primula imperialis. {From specimens) . . . 14. Chiefs House and Rice-shed in a Sumatran Village. {From a photograph) .... 15. Females of Papilio memnon 16. Papilio Coon 17. Leaf-butterfly in flight and repose 18. Female Hombill and young bird 19. Grammatophyllum, a gigantic Orchid. (Fro^m a sketch by the AtUhor) 20. Gun-boring in Lombock. (F^rom a sketch by the Author) ON WOOD BT PACE Wolf . . Frontispiece Fitch 23 Robinson . Keulemans Wolf . Bainf-s Fitch . Fitch . Fitch . Baines Baines T. W. Wood Fitch . Robinson Robinson Robinson T W. Wood T. W. Wood Fitch . . . Baines 28 30 32 50 60 63 64 78 84 87 90 . 96 98 99 . 101 . 105 107 . 130 XTI LIST OP ILLUSTRATIOXS ttKAWH on WOOD »T . . Baines . Baixem . Fitch . . R0BIN8OX 21. Timor Men. (From a phcUt^raph) 22. Xatire YUnof^ and Yoke, Macavtar. fFroux a MkeUk by ike Author^ 23. Snpu" PalnuL fFrom, a sketch by the Author) 24. SknlloftheBabinua 25. Pecnliar fonn of 'Wing/i of Celebes Batterflies Wallace. 26. Ejecting an Intruder Baixes 27. Bacquet-tailed Kingfiaher Robinson 28 "Wallace'* Standard Wing/' a new Bird of Pan^liM Keulexank 29. Sago (lab Baines . . 30. Sago-washing in Cenun. (From a sketch by the Author) Baines . . 31. Sago Oven. (From a sketch by the Author) . Baines . . 32. Cwicvu OmatoJi, a Moluccan Marsupial . . . Robinson 33. Molm^can Beetles Robinson 34. Natives shooting the Great Bird of Paradise . T. W. Wood 35. Great Black Cockatoo T. W. Wood 36. Dobbo in the Trading Season. {From a sketch by the Author) Baines . . 37. Male Brenthidie fighting Robinson 38. Papuan, Kew Guinea Baines . . 39. Papuan Pipe. {From a sketch by the Author) Baines . . 40. Homed Flies Robinson . 41. Clay-beater, used in Kew Guinea Robinson 42. The Red Bird of Paradise T. W. Wood 43. My house at Bessir, Waigiou. (From a sketch by the Author) Baines . . 44. Malay Anchor. {From a sketch by the Author) Baines . . 45. The "Twelve-wired" and the "King" Birds of Paradise Keulemanh 46. The Magnificent Bird of Paradise Keulemans 47. The Superb Bird of Paradise Keulemans 48. The Six -shafted Bird of Paradise Keulemans 49. The Long- tailed Binl of Paradise Keulemans 50. The Great Shielded Grasshopper Robinson 51 Papuan Chami Robiksox PAGR 150 173 177 212 216 228 229 253 290 290 291 302 307 337 342 360 366 379 381 383 389 403 406 415 419 428 429 430 433 444 449 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii MAPS PAOS Map showing Mr. Wallace's Route (tinted) Prrface The British Isles and Borneo on the same scale 3 Physical Map (tinted) 8 Map of Minahasa, North Celebes 189 Map of Amboyna 225 Amboyna, with parts of Bouru and Ceram 268 The Islands between Ceram and E^ 279 Map of the Am Islands 338 Voyage from Ceram to Waigiou 392 Voyage from Waigiou to Ternate 411 INSTRUCTIONS TO THE BINDER Route Map (tinted blue) at beginning of Prrface Physical Map at page 8 Orang-Utan attacked by Dyaks Frontispiece Remarkable Beetles, Borneo to face page 28 Ejecting an Intruder „ ,, 228 Wallace's Standard Wing, male and female ,, ,, 253 Moluccan Beetles ,, ,, 307 Natives shooting the Great Bird of Paradise ,, „ 337 Dobbo in the Trading Season „ ,, 360 The " Twelve- wired " and the "King" Birds of Paradise to face first page of Chap, xxxviii THE MALAY AKCHIPELAGO THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. CHAPTER I. PHYSICAL GEOGBAPHY. If we look at a globe or a map of the Eastern hemisphere, we shall x^erceive between Asia and Austi*alia a number of large and small islands, forming a connected group distinct from those great miosses of land, and having little connexion with either of them. Situated upon the Equator, and bathed by the tepid water of the great tropical oceans, this region enjoys a climate more uniformly hot ana moist than almost any otlier part of the globe, and teems w^itli natural productions which are elsewhere unknown. The richest of fruits and the most precious of spices are here indigenous. It produces the giant flowers of the Rafflesia, the great green -winged Ornitlioptera (princes among the butterfly tribes), tlie man-like Orang- U tan, and the gorgeous Birds of Paradise. It is inhabited by a peculiar and interesting race of mankind — the Malay, found nowhere beyond the limits of this insular tract, which has hence been named the Malay Archipelago. To the ordinary Englisliman this is perhaps the least known part of the globe. Our possessions in it are few and scanty ; scarcely any of our travellers go to exploi^e it j and in many collections of maps it is almost ignored, being divided between Asia and the Pacific Islands.^ It thus happens that few persons realize that, as a whole, it is comparable with the primary divisions of the globe, and that some of its separate islands are larger than France or the Austrian empii'e. Tne traveller, how- ever, soon acquires different ideas. He sails for days, or even for weeks, along the shores of one of these great islands, often so great that its inhabitants believe it to be a vast continent. He finds that voyages among these islands are commonly 1 Since the esUblishinent of the British North Borneo Company the region is more known, but the Dutch Colonies are still rarely visited. J£ B 2 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. reckoned by weeks and months, and that their several in- habitants are often as little known to eacli other as are the native I'aces of the northern to those of the southern continent of America. He soon comes to look upon this region as one apart from the i*est of the world with its own races of men and its own aspects of nature; with its own ideas, feeling^ customs, and modes of speech, and with a climate, vegetation, and animated life altogether peculiar to itself. From many points of view these islands form one compact geographical whole, and as such thev have always been treated By travellers and men of science ; but a mora caraful and de- tailed study of them under various aspects, reveals the unex- pected fact that they are divisible into two portions nearly equal in extent, which widely differ in their natural products, and really form parts of two of .the i)rimary divisions of the earth. I liave been able to prove this in considerable detail by my observations on the natural history of the various parts of the Archipelago ; and as in the description of my travels and residence m the several islands I shall have to refer continually to this view, and adduce facts in support of it, I have thought it advisable to commence with a genei'al sketcli of such of the main features of the Malayan region as will render the facts hereafter brought forward mora interesting, and their bearing on the general question more easily understood. I proceeo, therefore, to sketeli the limits and extent of the Archipelago, and to point out the more striking features of its geology, physical geography, vegetation, and animal life. hefinitum and Boundaries. — For reasons which depend mainly on the distribution of animal life, I consider the Malay Arehi- pelago to include the Malay Peninsula as far as Tenasserim, and the Nicobar Islands on the west, the Philippines on the north, and the Solomon Islands beyond New Guinea, on the east. All the great islands included within these limits are connected together by innumerable smaller ones, so that no one of them seems to be distinctly separated from the rest. With but few exceptions, all enjoy an uniform and very similar (dimate, and are covered with a luxuriant forest vegetation. Whether we study their form and distribution on maps, or actually travel from island to island, our first impression will be that they form a connected whole, all the parts of which are intimately related to each otlier. Extent of ilie Archipelago and Islands. — The Malay Archipelago extends for more than 4,000 miles in length fi*om east to west, and is about 1,300 in breadth from north to south. It would stretch over an expanse equal to that of all Europe from the extreme west far into Central Asia, or would cover the widest parts of South America, and extend far beyond the land into the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It includes three islands larger than Great Britain ; and in one of them. Borneo, the whole of the British Isles might be set down, ana would be surrounded 1.1 PHYSICAL OEOORAPHY 8 by a sea of forests. New Guinea, though less compact in shape, ia probably larger than. Borneo. Sumatra is about equal in extent to Great Britain - Java, Luzon, and Celebes are each about the size of Ireland. Eignteen more islands are, on the average, as large as Jamaica ; more than a hundred are as large as the Isleof Wight; while the isleaand islets of smaller size are innumerable. The absolute extent of land in the Archipelago is not greater than that contained by Western Europe from Hungary to Spain : but, owing to the manner in which the land is broken up and divided, the variety of its productions is rather in pro- portion to the inmense surface over which the islands are spread, than to the quantity of land which they contain. 4 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. Geological Contrasts. — One of tlie chief volcanic belts upon the globe passes through the Archipelago, and produces a striking contrast in the soenery of the volcanic and non- volcanic islands. A curving line markea out by scores of active and liundreds of extinct volcanoes, may be traced througli the whole length of Sumatra and Java, and thence by the islands of Bali, Lorn bock, Sumbawa, Flores, the Serwatty Islands, Banda, Amboyna, Batchian, Makian, Tidore, Ternate, and Gilolo, to Morty Island. Here there is a slight but well-marked break, or shifty of about 200 miles to the westward, where the volcanic belt again begins, in North Celebes, and passes by Siau and Sanguir to the PhiJ^ppine Islands, along the eastern side of which it continues, in a curving line, to their northern extremity. From the extreme eastern bend of this belt at Banda, we pass onwards for 1,000 miles over a non-volcanic district to the volcanoes observed by Dampier, in 1699, on the north-eastern coast of New Guinea, and can there trace another volcanic belt, through New Britain, New Ireland, and the Solomon Islands, to the eastern limits of the Archipelago. In the whole region occupied by this vast line of volcanoes, and for a considerable breadth on each side of it, earthquakes are of continual recurrence, slight shocks being felt at intervals of every few weeks or months, while more severe ones, shaking down whole villages, and doing more or less injury to life and property, are sure to nappen, in one part or another of this district, almost every year. In many of the islands the years of the great earth- quakes form the chronological epochs of the native inhabitants, by the aid of which the ages of their children are remembered, and the dates of many important events are determined. I can only briefly allude to the many fearful eruptions that have taken place in this region. In the amount of injury to life and property, and in the magnitude of their effects, they have not been surpassed by any upon record. Forty villages were destroyed by the eruption or Papandayang in Java, in 1773 when the whole mountain was blown up by repeated explosions, and a large lake left in its place. By the great eruption of Tomboro in Sumbawa, in 1815, 12,000 people were destroyed, and the ashes darkened the air and fell thickly u^n the earth and sea for 300 miles round. Even quite recently, since I quitted the country, a mountain which had been quiescent for more than 200 years suddenly burst into activity. The island of Makian, one of the Moluccas, was rent open in 1646 by a violent eruption, which left a huge chasm on one side, extending into the heart of the mountain. When I last visited it, in 1860, it was clothed with vegetation te the summit, and contained twelve populous Malay villages. On the 29th of December, 1862, after 215 years of perfect inaction, it again suddenly burst forth, blowing up ana completely altering the api)earance of the mountain, de- stroying the greater part of the inhabitants, and sending forth such volumes of ashes as to darken the air at Ternate, forty I.] PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 5 miles off, and to almost entirely destroy the growing crops on that and the surrounding islands.^ The island of Java contains mora volcanoes, active and extinct, than any other known district of equal extent. They are about forty-iive in number, and many of tliem exhibit most beautiful examples of the volcanic cone on a large scale, single or double, with entire or truncated summits, and averaging 10^000 feet high. It is now well ascertained that almost all volcanoes have been slowly built up by the accumulation of matter — mud, ashes, and lava — ejected oy themselves. The openings or craters, however, frequently shift their position ; so that a country may be coverea with a more or less irre^lar series of hills in chains and masses, only here and there rising into lofty cones, and yet the whole may be produced by true volcanic action. In this manner the greater part of Java has been formed. There has been some elevation, especially on the south coast, where extensive cliffs of coral limestone are found ; and there mav be a substratum of older stratified rocks ; but still essentially Java is volcanic ; and that noble and fertile island — the very garden of the East, and perhaps upon the whole the richest, the best cultivated, and the best governed tropical island in tne world—owes its verv existence to the same intense volcanic activity which still occasionally devastates its surface. The great island of Sumatra exhibits in proportion to its extent a much smaller number of volcanoes, and a considerable portion of it has probably a non-volcanic origin. To the eastward, the long string of islands from Java, passing by the north of Timor and away to Banda, are probably all due to volcanic action. Timor itself consists of ancient stratified rocks, but is said to have one volcano near its centre. Going northward, Amboyna, a part of Bouru, and the west end of Ueram, the north part of Gilolo, and all the small islands around it, the northern extremity of Celebes, and the islands of Siaa and Sanguir, are wholly volcanic. The Philippine Archi- pelago contains many active and extinct volcanoes, and has prolmbly been reduced to its present fragmentary condition by subsidences attending on volcanic action. All along this great line of volcanoes are to be found more or less palpable signs of upheaval and depression of land. The range of islands south oi Sumatnv, a part of the south coast of Java and of the islands east of it, tne west and east end of 1 More recently, in 1883, the volcanic island of Krakatoa was blown up fn a terriflo eruption, tlio aonnd uf the explosion* being heard at Ceylon, New Guinea, Manilla, and West Australia, while the ashes were spread over an area as large as the German Empire, liie chief destruction was effected by great sea waves, which entirely destroyed many towns and villages on the coasts of Java and Sumatra, causing the death of between 80.000 sod 40,000 persona. The atmo8i>heric disturbance was so great that air-waves passed three and a quarter times round tlic globe, and the finer particles floating in the iiicher parts of the atmosphere produced remarkable colours in the sky at sunset for more than two yean allerwaids and in all iiarta of the world. 6 THE MALAY ABCHIPELAGO. [chap. Timor, portions of all the Moluccas, the K^ and Aru Islands, Waigiou, and the whole south and east of Gilolo, consist in a great measure of upraised coral-rock, exactly corresponding to that now forming in the adjacent seas. In many places I have observed the unaltered surfaces of the elevated reeis, with great masses of coral standing up in their natural position, and hundreds of shells so fresh-looking that it was hard to believe that the^ had been more than a few years out of the water ; and, in fact, it is very probable that such changes have occurred within a few centuries. The united lengths of these volcanic belts is about ninety degrees, or one-fourth of the entire circumference of the globe. Their width is about iift^ miles ; but, for a space of two hundred on each side of them, evidences of subterranean action are to be found in recentlv elevated coral-rock, or in barrier coral-reefs, indicating recent submergence. In tlie very centre or focus ot the great cur\'e of volcanoes is placed the large island of Borneo, in which no sign of recent volcanic action has vet been observed, and where earthquakes, so characteristic oi the surrounding regions, are entirely unknown. The equally large island of New Guinea occupies another quiescent area, on which no sign of volcanic action has yet been discovered. With the exception of the eastern end of its northern peninsula, the large and curiously-shaped island of Celebes is also entirely free from volcanoes ; and there is some reason to believe that the volcanic portion has once formed a separate island. The Malay Penin- sula is also non- volcanic. The first and most obvious division of the Archipelago would therefore be into quiescent and volcanic regions, and it might, perhaps, be expected that such a division would correspond to some aifierences in the character of the vegetation and the forms of life. This is the case, however, to a very limited extent ; and we shall presently see that, although this development of sub- terranean fires is on so vast a scale, — has piled up chains of mountains ten or twelve thousand feet high — has broken up continents and raised up islands from the ocean, — yet it has all the character of a recent action, which has not yet succeeded in obliterating the traces of a more ancient distribution of land and water. Contrasts of Vegetation. — Placed immediately upon the Equator and surrounded by extensive oceans, it is not surprising that the various islands of the Archipelago should be almost alwavs clothed with a forest vegetation from the level of the sea to the summits of the loftiest mountains. This is the general rule. Sumatra, New Guinea, Borneo, the Philippines and the Mo- luccas, and the uncultivated parts of Java and Celebes, are all forest countries, except a few small and unimportant tracts, due perhaps, in some cases, to ancient cultivation or accidental fires. To this, however, there is one important exception in the island of Timor and all the smaller islands around it, in which I.] PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 7 there is absolutely no forest such as exists in the other islands, and this character extends in a.lesser degree to Flores, Sumbawa, Lombock, and Bali. In Timor the most common trees are Eucalypti of several species, so characteristic of Australia, with sandal- wood, acacia, and other sorts in less abundance. Tnese are scattered over the country more or less thickly, but never so as to deserve the name of a forest. Coarse ana scanty grasses grow beneath them on the more barren hills, and a luxuriant herbage in the moister localities. In the islands between Timor and Java thera is often a more thickly wooded country, abounding in thorny and prickly trees. These seldom reach any great height, and during the force of the dry season they almost completely lose their leaves, allowing the ground beneath them to be parched up, and contrasting strongly with the damp, gloomy, ever- verdant forests of the other islands. This peculiar character, which extends in a less degree to the soutnern peninsula of Celebes and the east end of Java, is most prooably owing to the proximity of Australia. The south-east monsoon, which lasts for about two-thirds of the year (from March to November), blowing over the northern parts of that country, produces a degree of heat and dryness which assimilates the vegetation and physical aspect of the adjacent islands to its own. A little lurther eastward in Timor-laut and the K^ Islands, a moister climate prevails, the south-east winds blowing from the Pacific through Torres Straits and over the damp forests of New Guinea, and as a consequence every rocky islet is clothed with verdure to its very summit Further west again, as the same dry winds blow over a wider and wider extent of ocean, they have time to absorb fresh moisture, and we accordingly find the island of Java possessing a less and less arid climate, till in the extreme west near Batavia rain occurs more or less all the year round, and the mountains are everywhere clothed with forests of unexampled luxuriance. Contrasts in Depth of Sea, — It was first pointed out by Mr. George Windsor Earl, in a paper read before the Royal Geo- graphical Society in 1846, and subsequently in a pamphlet On the Physical Geography of South- Eastern Asia and Australia^ dated 1855. that a shallow sea connected the great islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo with the Asiatic continent, with which their natural productions generally agreed ; while a similar shallow sea connected New Guinea and some of the islands adjacent to Australia, all being characterized by the presence of marsupials. We have here a clue to the most radical contrast in the Archii)elago, and by following it out in detail I have arnved at the conclusion tnat we can draw a line among the islands, which shall so divide them that one-half shall truly belong to Asia, while the other shall no less certainly be allied to Australia. I term these respectively the Indo-Malayan, and the 8 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. Austro-Malayan divisions of the Archipelago. (See Physical Map.) In Mr. Earl's pamphlet, however, he argues in favour of the former land-connexion of Asia and A.ustra]ia, whereas it apj>ears to me that the evidence, taken as a whole, points to their long- continued separation. Notwithstanding this and other important differences between us, to him undoubtedly belongs tne merit of first indicating the division of the Archi- pelago into an Australian and an Asiatic region, which it nas Deen my good fortune to establish by more detailed observations. Contrasts in Natural Prodtictions. — To understand the importance of this class of facts, and its bearing upon the former distribution of land and sea, it is necessary to consider the results arrived at by geologists and naturalists in other parts of the world. ^ It is now generally admitted that the present distribution of living thin^ on the surface of the earth is mainly the result of the last series of changes that it has undergone. Geology teaches us that the surface of the land and the distribution of land and water is everywhere slowly changing. It further teaches us that the forms of life which inhabit that surface have, during every period of which we possess any record, been also slowly changing. It is not now necessary to say anything about how either of those changes took place ; as to that, opinions may differ ; but as to the fact that the changes tliemselves have occurred, from the earliest geological ages down to the present day, and are still going on, there is no difference of opinion. Every successive stratum of sedimentary rock, sand, or gravel, is a proof that changes of level have taken place ; and the different species of animals and plants, whose remains are found in these deposits, prove that corresponding changes did occur in the organic world. Taking, therefore, tliese two series of changes for granted, most of the present peculiarities and anomalies in the distribution of species may be directly traced to them. In our own islands, with a very few trifling exceptions, every quadruped, bird, reptile, insect, and plant, is found also on the adjacent continent. In the small islands of Sardinia and Corsica, there are some quad- rupeds and insects, and many plants, quite peculiar. In Ceylon, more closely connected to India than Britain is to Europe., many animals and plants are different from those found in India, and peculiar to the island. In the Galapagos Islands, almost every indigenous living thing is peculiar to them, though closely re- sembling other kinds found in the nearest parts of the American continent. Most naturalists now admit that these facts can only be ex- plained by the greater or less lapse of time since the islands were upraised from beneath the ocean, or were separated from the nearest land ; and this will be generally (though not always) in- dicated by tne depth of the intervening sea. The enormous I.] PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 9 thickness of many marine de}K)sits through ^ide areas shows that subsidence has often continued (with intermitting periods of repose) during epochs of immense duration. The depth of sea produced by such subsidence will therefore generally be a measure of time ; and in like manner the change which organic forms have undergone is a measure of time. When we make proper allowance for the continued introduction of new animals ana plants from surrounding countries, by those natural means of di8X)er8al which have been so well explained by Sir Charles Lyell and Mr. Darwin, it is remarkable now closely these two measures cori*espond. Britain is separated from the continent by a very shallow sea, and only in a very few cases have our animals or plants begun to show a diflference from the corre- sponding continental species. Corsica and Sardinia, divided from Italv by a much deeper sea, present a much greater diffei*ence in their organic fonns. Cuba, separated from Yucatan by a wider and deeper strait, differs more markexlly, so that most of its productions are of distinct and peculiar species : while Madagascar, divided from Africa by a deep channel three hundred miles wide, possesses so many peculiar features as to indicate separation at a very remote antiquity, or even to render it doubtful whether the two countries have ever been absolutely united. Returning now to the Mala^ Archipelago, we find that all the wide expanse of sea which divides tlie islanas of Java, Sumatra, and Borneo from each other, and from Malacca and Siam, is so shallow that ships can anchor in any part of it, since it rarely exceeds forty fathoms in depth ; and if we go as lar as the line of a hundred fathoms, we shall include the Philippine Islands and Bali, east of Java. If, therefore^ these islands have been separated from each other and the continent by subsidence of the inter- vening tracts of land, we should conclude that the separation has been comparatively recent, since the depth to which the land has subsided is so small. It is also to be remarked, that the great chain of active volcanoes in Sumatra and Java furnishes us with a sufficient cause for such subsidence, since the enormous masses of matter they have thrown out would take away the foundations of the surrounding district ; and this may be the true explana- tion of the often-noticed fact, that volcanoes and volcanic chains are always near the sea. The subsidence they produce around them will, in time, make a sea, if one does not already exist.* But it is when we examine the zoology of these countries that we find what we most require — evidence of a very striking character that these great islands must have once formed a paH of the continent, ana could only have been separated at a very recent geological epoch. The elephant and tapir of Sumatra and Borneo, the rhinoceros of Sumatra and the allied species of Java, 1 It it now believed "bj moat geologists that subsidence is prodnced by the wefght of every fresh deposit of materials either in the sea or on the land. Accumolations of lock or ashes from volcanoes would, therefore, be itself a cause of subsidence. 10 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. the wild cattle of Borneo and the kind long supposed to be peculiar to Java, are now all known to inhabit some part or other of Southern Asia. None of these larse animals could possibly have passed over the arms of the sea which now separate these countries, and their presence plainly indicates that a land communication must have existed since the origin of the species. Among the smaller mammals a considerable portion are common to each island and the continent ; but the vast physical changes that must have occurred during the breaking up and subsidence of such extensive regions have led to the extinction of some in one or more of the islands, and in some cases there seems also to have been time for a change of species to have taken place. Birds and insects illustrate the same view, for every family, and almost every genus of these groups found in any of the islands, occurs also on the Asiatic continent, and in a great number of cases the species are exactly identical. Birds oSer us one of the best means of determining the law of distribution ; for though at first sight it would appear that the watery boundaries which keep out the land quadrupeds could be easily passed over by birds, yet practically it is not so ; for if we leave out the aquatic tribes which are pre-eminently wanderers, it is found that the others (and especially the Passeres, or true perch ing-birds, which form the vast majority) are often as strictly limited by straits and arms of the sea as are quadrupeds themselves. As an instance, among the islands of which 1 am now speaking^ it is a remarkable fact that Java possesses numerous birds which never pass over to Sumatra, though they are separated by a strait only fifteen miles wide, and with islands in mid-channel. Java, in fact, possesses more birds and insects peculiar to itself than either Sumatra or Borneo, and this woula indicate that it was earliest separated from the continent; next in organic individuality is Borneo, while Sumatra is so nearly identical in all its animal forms witn the peninsula of Malacca, that we may safely conclude it to have been the most recently dismembered island. The general result therefore at which we arrive is, that the great islands of Java, Sumatra, and Borneo, resemble in their natural productions the adjacent parts of the continent, almost as much as such widely-separated districts could be expected to do even if they still formed a part of Asia ; and this close re- semblance, loined with the fact of the wide extent of sea which separates them being so uniformly and remarkably shallow, and lastly, the existence of the extensive range of volcanoes in Sumatra and Java, which have poured out vast quantities of subterranean matter and have built up extensive plateaux and lofty mountain ranges, thus furnishing a vera causa for a parallel line of subsidence— all lead irresistibly to the conclusion that at a very recent geological epoch the continent of Asia extended far beyond its present limits in a south-easterly direction including the islands of Java, Sumatra, and Borneo, and I.] PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 11 probably reaching as far as the present 100-fathom line of soundings. The Philippine Islands agree in many respects with Asia and the other islands, but present some anomalies, which seem to indicate that they were separated at an earlier })eriod, and have since been subject to many revolutions in their physical geography. Turning our attention now to the remaining portion of the Archipelago, we shall find that all the islands from Celebes and Lombock eastwai'd exhibit almost as close a resemblance to Australia and New Guinea as the Western Islands do to Asia. It is well known that the natural productions of Australia differ from those of Asia more than those of any of the four ancient quarters of the world differ from eacli other. Australia, in fact, stands alone : it possesses no apes or monkeys, no cats or tigers, wolves, bears, or hyenas ; no deer or antelopes, sheep or oxen ; no elephant, horse, squirrel, or rabbit ; none, in short, of those familiar types of quadruped which are met with in every other part of the world. Instead of these, it has Marsupials only, tcan^roos and opossums, wombats and the duck-billed Platypus. In birds it is almost as peculiar. It has no woodpeckers and no pheasants, families which exist in every other part of the world ; Dut instead of them it has the mound-making brush-turkeys, the honeysuckers,the cockatoos, and the brush-tongued lories, which ai*e found nowhere else upon the globe. All these striking pecu- liarities are found also in those islands which form the Austro- Malayan division of the Archipelago. The ^nreat contrast between the two divisions of the Archi- pelago IS nowhere so abruptly exhibited as on passing from the island of Bali to that of Lombock, where the two regions are in closest proximity. In Bali we have barbets, fruit-thrushes, and woodpeckers ; on passing over to Lombock tliese are seen no more, but we have abundance of cockatoos, honeysuckera, and brush-turkeys, which are equally unknown in Bali^^ or any island further west. The strait is here fifteen ipiles wide, so that we may pass in two hours from one great division of the eai*th to another, differing as essentially in their animal life as Europe does from America. If we travel from Java or Borneo to Celebes or the Moluccas, the difference is still more striking. In the first, the forests abound in monkeys of man:^ kinds, wild cats, deer, civets, and otters, and numerous varieties of squirrels are con- stantly met with. In the latter none of these occur ; but the prehensile-tailed cuscus is almost the only terrestrial mammal seen, except wild pigs, which are found in all the islands, and deer (whicli have probabljr been recently introduced) in Celebes and the Moluccas. The birds which are most abundant in the Western Islands are woodpeckers, barbets, trogons, fruit- < I w«8 informed, however, that there were a few cockatoos at one spot on the west of Ball, showing tluit the intermingling of the productions of these islands Is now going on. 12 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. thrushes, and leaf-thruslies : they are seen daily, and form the ?reat ornithological features of the country. In tlie Eastern slands these are absolutely unknown, honeysuckers and small lories being the most common birds ; so that the naturalist feels himself in a new world, and can hardly realize tliat he has passed from the one region to the other in a few days, without ever being out of sight of land. The inference that we must draw from these facts is un- doubtedly, that the whole of the islands eastwards beyond Java and Borneo, with the exception, perhaps, of Celebes, do essentially form a part of a former Australian or Pacific con- tinent, although some of them may never have been actually joined to it. This continent must have been broken up not only before the Western Islands were separated from Asia, but probably before tlie extreme south-eastern portion of Asia was raised above the waters of the ocean ; for a great part of the land of Borneo and Java is known to be geologically of quite recent formation, while the very great difference of species, and in many cases of genera also, between the productions of the Eastern Malay Islands and Australia, as well as the great depth of the sea now separating them, all point to a comparatively long period of isolation. It IS interesting to observe among the islands themselves, how a shallow sea always intimates a recent land-connexion. The Aru Islands, Mysol, and Waigiou, as well as Jobie, ag^ree with New Guinea in their species of mammalia and birds much more closelv than they do with the Moluccas, and we find that they are all united to New Guinea by a shallow sea. In fact, the 100-fathom line round New Guinea marks out accurately the range of the true Paradise birds. It is further to be noted — and this is a very interesting point in connexion with theories of the dependence of special tomis of life on external conditions — that this division of the Archi- pelago into two regions characterized by a striking diversity in their natural productions, does not in any way correspona to the main physical or climatal divisions of the surface. The great volcanic chain runs through both parts, and appears to produce no effect in assimilating their productions. Borneo closely resembles New Guinea, not only in its vast size and its freedom from volcanoes, but in its variety of geological structure, its uniformity of climate, and the general aspect of the forest vegetation that clot lies its surface. The Moluccas are the coun- terpart of the Philippines in their volcanic structure, their extreme fertility, their luxuriant forests, and their freguent earthquakes ; and Bali with tiie east end of Java has a climate almoct as dry and a soil almost as arid as that of Timor. Yet between these corresponding groups of islands, constructed as it were after the same pattern, subjected to the same climate, and bathed by the same oce^ins, there exists the greatest possible contrasts when we compare their animal productions. Nowhere I.] PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 13 does the ancient doctrine — ^that differences or similarities in the various forms of life that inhabit different countries are due to corresponding physical differences or similarities in the countries themselves — meet with so direct and palpable a con- tradiction. Borneo and New Guinea, as alike physically as two distinct countries can be, are zoologically wide as the poles asunder ;' while Australia, with its dry winds, its open plains, its stony deserts, and its temperate climate, yet proauces birds and quadrupeds which are closely related to those inhabiting the hot, damp, luxuriant forests which everywhere clothe the plains and mountains of New Guinea. In order to illustrate more clearly the means by which I 3up{x>se this great contrast has been brought about^ let us consider what would occur if two strongly contrasted aivisions of the earth were, by natural means brought into proximity. No two parts of the world differ so radically iii their productions as Asia and Australia, but the difference between Africa and South America is also very great^ and these two regions will well serve to illustrate the question we are considering. On the one side we have baboons, lions, elephants, buffaloes, and giraffes ; on the other spider-monkeys, pumas, tapii*s, ant-eaters, and sloths ; while amon^ birds, the hornbills, tui*acos, orioles, and honey suckers of Africa contrast strongly with the toucans, macaws, chatterers, and humming-birds of America. Now let us endeavour to imagine that a slow upheaval of the bed of the Altantic should take place, while at the same time earthquake-shocks and volcanic action on the land should cause increased volumes of sediment to be poured down by the rivers, so that the two continents should gradually spread out by the addi- tion of newly-fonned lands, and thus i^educe the Atlantic which now separates them to an arm of the sea a few hundred miles wide. At the same time we may suppose islands to be upheaved in mid-channel ; and, as the subterranean forces varied in intensity, and shifted their points of greatest action, these islands would sometimes become connected with the land on one side or other of the strait, and at other times again be separated from it. Several islands would at one time be joined together, at another would be broken up again, till at last, after many long ages of such intermittent action, we might have an irregular archipelago of islands filling up the ocean ctiannel of the Atlantic, in whose appearance ana arrangement wc could discover nothing to tell us which had been connected with Africa and which with America. The animals and plants inhabiting these islands would, however, certainly reveal this portion of their former history. On those islands which had ever formed a part of the South American continent we should be sure to find such com- mon birds as chatterers and toucans and humming-birds, and some of the peculiar American quadrupeds ; while on those which had been separated from Africa, nornbills, orioles, and honeysuckers would as certainly be found. Some portion of 14 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. the upraised land might at different times have had a tem- porary connexion with both continents, and would then con- tain a certain amount of mixture in its living inhabitants. Such seems to have been the case with the islands of Celebes and the Philippines. Other islands, again, though in such close proximity as Bali and Lombock, might each exhibit an almost unmixed sample of the productions of the continents of which they had directly or indirectly once formed a part. In the Malay Archipelaffo we have, I believe, a case exactly parallel to that which I have here supposed. We have indi- cations of a vast continent, with a peculiar fauna and flora, having been gradually and irregularly broken up * the island of Celebes probably marking its furthest westward extension, beyond which was a wide ocean.* At the same time Asia appears to have been extending its limits in a south-east direction, first in an unbroken mass, then separated into islands as we now see it, and almost coming into actual contact with the scattered fragments of the great southern land. From this outline of the subject, it will be evident how im- portant an adjunct Natural History is to Geology ; not only in interpi*eting the fragments of extinct animals found in the earth's crust, but in determining past changes in tlie surface which have left no geological record. It is certainly a won- dei'ful and unexpectea fact, that an accurate knowledge of the distribution of birds and insects should enable us to map out lands and continents whicli disappeared beneath the ocean long before the earliest traditions of the human race. Wherever the geologist can explore the earth's surface, he can read much of its past history, and can determine approximately its latest movements above and below the sea-levei ; but wherever oceans and seas now extend, he can do nothing but speculate on the very limited data afforded by the depth of the waters. Here the naturalist steps in, and enables him to fill up this great gap in the past history of the earth. One of the chief objects of my travels was to obtain evidence of tliis nature ; and my search after such evidence has been rewarded by great success, so that I have been enabled to trace out with some probability the past changes which one of the most interesting parts of the earth has undergone. It may be thought that the facts and generalizations here g^iven, would have been more appropriately placed at the end rather than at tlie beginning of a narrative ot the travels which supplied the facts. In some cases this might be so, but I have found it im- possible to give such an account as I desire of the natural history of the numerous islands and groups of islands in the Archipelago, without constant reference to tnese generalizations which add 1 Further stody of the BU^ject has led me to conclude that Celebes never formed part of the Austro-Malayan land, but that it more probably indicates the furthest east- ward extension of the Asiatic continent at a very early period. (See the author's leland Life, p. 427.) I.] PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 16 so much to their interest. Having given this general sketch of the subiect, I shall be able to show how the same principles can be applied to the individual islands of a group as to the whole Archipelago ; and make my account of the many new and curious animals which inhabit them both more interesting and more instructive than if treated as mere isolated facts. Contrasts of Eaces,— Before I had arrived at the conviction that the eastern and western halves of the Archipelago belonged to distinct primary regions of the earth, I had been led to group the natives of the Archipelago under two radically distinct luces. In this I differed from most ethnologists who had before written on the subject ; for it had been the almost universal custom to follow William von Humboldt and Pritchard, in classing all the Oceanic races as modifications of one type. Observation soon showed me, however, that Malays and Papuans differed radically in every physical, mental, and moral character: and more detailed research, continued for eight years, satisfied me that under these two forms, as types, the whole of the peoples of the Malay Archipelago and Polynesia could be classified. On drawing the line which separates these races, it is found to come near to that which divides the zoolo|^cal regions, but somewhat eastward of it ; a circumstance which appears to me very significant of the same causes having influenced the dis- tribution of mankind that have determined the range of other animal forms. The reason why exactly the same line does not limit both is sufficiently intelligible. Man has means of traversing the sea which animals do not possess ; and a superior race has power to press out or assimilate an inferior one. The maritime enter- prise and higher civilization of the Malay races have enabled them to overrun a portion of the adjacent region, in which they have entirely supplanted the indigenous inhabitants if it ever possessed any ; and to spjread much of their langua|^e, their domestic animals, and their customs far over the Pacific, into islands where they have but slightly, or not at all, modified the physical or moral characteristics of the people. 1 believe, therefore, that all the peoples of the various islands can be grouped either with the Malays or the Papuans ; and that these two have no traceable affinity to each other. I believe, f urther^ that all the races east of the line I have drawn have more affinity for each other than they have for any of the races west of that line ; — ^that, in fact, the Asiatic races include the Malays, and all have a continental origin, while the races of Papuan type, including all to the east of the former, as far as the Fiji Islands, are derived, not from any existing continent, but from lands which now exist or have recently existed in the Pacific Ocean. These preliminary observations will enable the reader better to apprehend the importance I attach to the details of j^ysical form or moral character, which I shall give in describing the inhabitants of many of the islands. Id THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. CHAPTER IL SINGAPORE. (a sketch of thb town axd island as seen during bsvebal visits from 1854 to 1862.) Few places are more interesting to a traveller from Europe than the town and island of Singapore, furnishing, as it does, examples of a variety of Eastern races, and of many different religions and modes of life. The government, the garrison, and the cliief merchants are English ; but the great mass of the population is Chinese, including some of the wealthiest merchants, the agriculturists of the interior, and most of the mechanics and labourers. The native Malays are usually fishermen and boatmen, and they form the main body of the police. The Portuguese of Malacca supply a large number of the clerks and smaller mercliants. The Klings of Western India are a numerous body of Mahometans, and, with many Arabs, are petty merchants and shopkeepers. Tlie grooms and washermen are all Bengalees, and there is a small but highly respectable class of Parsee merchants. Besides these, there are numbers of Javanese sailors and domestic servants, as well as traders from Celel)es, Bali, and many other islands of the Archipelago. The harbour is crowded with men-of-war and trading vessels of many European nations, and hundreds of Malay praus and Chinese J'unks, from vessels of several hundred tons burthen down to ittle fishing boats and passenger sampans ; and the town com- prises handsome public buildings and churches, Mahometan mosques Hindoo temples, Chinese joss-houses, good European houses massive warehouses, queer old Kling and China bazaars, and long suburbs of Chinese and Malay cottages. By far the most conspicuous of the various kinds of people in Singapore, and those which most attract tlie stranger's attention, are the Chinese, whose numbers and incessant activity give the place very much the appearance of a town in China. The Chinese merchant is generally a fat round-faced man with an important and business-like look. He wears the same style of clothing (loose white smock, and blue or black trousers) as the meanest coolie, but of finer materials, and is always clean and neat ; and his long tail tipped with red silk hangs down to his heels. He has a handsome warehouse or shop in town and a good house in the country. He keeps a fine horse and gig, and every evening may be seen taking a drive bareheaded to enjoy tlie cool breeze. He is rich, he owns several retail shops and trading schooners, he lends money at high interest and on good security, he makes hard bargains and gets fatter and richer everv year. In the Chinese bazaar are hundreds of small shops in which a II.] SINGAPOBE. 17 miscellaneous collection of hardware and dry goods are to be found, and where many things are sold wonderfully cheap. You may buy gimlets at a penny each, white cotton thread at four balls for a halfpenny, and penknives, corkscrews, gunpowder, writing-paper, and many other articles as cheap or cheaper than you can purcnase them in England. The shopkeeper is very good-natured ; he will show you everything he has, and does not seem to mind if you buy nothing. He bates a little, but not so much as the Klings, who almost always ask twice what they are willing to take. If you buy a few things of him, he will speak to you afterwards every time you pass his shop, asking you to walk in and sit down, or take a cup of tea, and you wonder how he can get a living where so many sell the same trifling articles. The tailors sit a^ a table, not on one; and lx)th they and the shoemakers work well and cheaply. The barbers have plenty to do, shaving heads and cleaning ears ; for which latter operation they have a great array of little tweezers, picks, and brushes. In the outskirts of the town are scores of car- penters and blacksmiths. The former seem chiefly to make coffins and highly painted and decorated clothes-ooxes. The latter are mostly gun-makers, and bore the barrels of puns by hand, out of solid oars of iron. At this tedious operation they may be seen every day, and tliey manage to finish ofT a gun with a flint lock very hanasomely. All about the streets are sellers of water, vegetables, fruit, soup, and ag[ar-agar (a jelly made of seaweed), who have many cries as unintelligible as those of London. Others carry a portable cooking-apparatus on a pole balanced by a table at the other end, and serve up a meal of shell-fish, nee, and vegetables for two or three halfpence ; while coolies and boatmen waiting to be hired are everywhere to be met with. In the interior of the island the Chinese cut down forest trees in the jungle, and saw them up into planks: they cultivate vegetables, which they bring to market ; and tney grow pepper and gambir, which form important articles of export. The French Jesuits have established missions among these inland Chinese, which seem very successful. I lived for several weeks at a time with the missionary at Bukit-tima, about the centre of the island, where a pretty church has been built and tliere are about 300 converts. While there, I met a missionary who had just arrived from Tonquin, where he had been living for many years. The Jesuits still do their work thoroughly as of old. In Cochin China, Tonquin, and China, where all Cliristian teachers are obliged to live in secret, and are liable to persecution, ex- pulsion^ and sometimes death,' every province, even those farthest m the interior, has a permanent Jesuit mission establisliment, constantly kept up by fresh aspirants, who are taught the lan- gpiages of the countries they are going to at Penang or Singa- pore. In China there are said to be near a million converts ; in 1 Binoe the Fnneli setttement in Cochin China Uiis is no longer the ease. C 18 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. Tonquin and Cochin China, more than half a million. One secret of the success of these missions is the rigid eoonomj practised in the expenditure of the funds. A missionary is allowed about 30^. a year, on which he li\'es in whatever country he may be. This renders it possible to support a large number of missionaries with very limited means ; and the natives, seeing their teachers living in poverty and with none of the luxuries of life, are convinced that they are sincere in what they teach, and have really given up home and friends and ease and safety for the good of others. No wonder they make converts, for it must be a great blessing to the poor people among whom they labour to have a man among them to whom they can go in any trouble or distress, who will comfort and advise them, who visits them in sickness, who relieves them in want, and who devotes his whole life to their instruction and welfare. My friend at Bukit-tima was truly a father to his flock. He preached to them in Chinese every Sunday, and had evenings tor discussion and conversation on religion during the week. He had a scliool to teach their children. Ilis house was open to them day and night. If a man came to him and said, " I have no rice for my family to eat to-day," he would give him half of what he haa in the house, however little that might be. If another said, " I have no money to pay my debt," he would give him half the contents of his purse, were it his last dollar. So, when he was himself in want, he would send to some of the wealthiest among his flock, and say, " I have no rice in the house," or " I have given away my money, and am in want of such and such articles." The result was that his flock trusted and loved him, for they felt sure tliat he was their true friend, and had no ulterior designs in living among them. The island of Singapore consists of a multitude of smaA hills, three or four hundred feet high, the summits of many of which are still covered with virgin forest. The mission-house at Bukit- tima was surrounded by several of these wood-topped hills, which were much frequented by wood-cutters and sawyers, and offered me an excellent collecting ground for insects. Here and there, too, were tiger pits, carefully covered over with sticks and leaves, and so well concealed, that in several cases I had a narrow escape from falling into them. They are shaped like an iron furnace, wider at the bottom than the top, and are perhaps fifteen or twenty feet deep, so that it would be almost impossible for a person unassisted to get out of one. Formerly a sharp stake was stuck erect in the bottom ; but after an unfortunate traveller had been killed by falling on one, its use was forbidden. There are always a few tigers roaming alx>ut Sin^pore, and they kill on an average a Chinaman every day, principally those who work in the gamoir plantations, which are always made in newly-cleared jungle. We heard a tiger roar once or twice in the evening, and it was rather nervous work hunting for insects III.] MALACCA AND MOUNT OPHIR. 19 among the fallen trunks and old sawpits, when one of these savage animals might be lurking close by, waiting an opportunity to spring upon us. Several hours in the middle of every fine day were spent in these patches of forest, which were delightfully cool and shady by contrast with the bare open country we Iiad to walk over to reach them. The vegetation was most luxuriant, comprising enormous forest trees, as well as a variety of ferns, caladiums, and other undergrowth, and abundance of climbing rattan palms. Insects were exceedingly abundant and very interesting, and every day furnished scores of new and curious forms, in about two months I obtained no less than 700 species of beetles, a large proportion of which were quite new, and among them were 130 distinct kinds of the elegant Longicorns (Cerambycidae), so much esteemed by collectors. Almost all these were collected in one patch of jungle, not more than a square mile in extent, and in all my subsequent travels in the East I rarely if ever met with so proouctive a spot. This exceeding productiveness was due in part no doubt to some favourable conditions in the soil, climate, and vegetation, and to the season bein^ very binght and suimy, with sufficient showers to keep everything fresh. But it was also in a great measure dependent, I feel sui'e, on the labours of the Chinese wood-cutters. They hawi been at work here for several years, and during all that time had furnished a continual supply of dry and dead and deca3ring leaves and bark, together with abundance of wood and sawdust, for the nourishment of insects and their laryse. This had led to the assemblage of a great variety of species in a limited space, and I was the first naturalist who had come to reap the harvest they had prepared. In the same place, and during my walks in other directions, I obtained a fair collection of butterflies and of other orders of insects, so that on the whole I was quite satisfied with these my first attempts to gain a knowledge of the Natural History of the Malay Archipelago. CHAPTER III. MALACCA AND MOUNT OPHIR. (JTJLT TO 8EFTKMBER, 1854.) Birds and most other kinds of animals being scarce at Singa- pore, I left it in July for Malacca, where I spent more than two. months in the interior, and made an excursion to Mount Ophir.. The old and picturesque town of Malacca is crowded along the- banks of the small river, and consists of narrow streets of sliops. and dwelling-houses, occupied by the descendants of the Portu- guese, and by Chinamen., lu, the. ouburbs are the houses of Uie. c 2 20 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. English officials and of a few Portuguese merchants, embedded in groves of palms and fruit-trees^ whose varied and beautiful foliage furnishes a pleasing relief to the eye, as well as most grateful shade. The old fort, the large Qovemment House, and the ruins of a cathedral, attest the former wealth and importance of this place, which was once as much the centre of Ecistem trade as ^nga- pore is now. The following description of it b^r Linschott, who wrote two hundred and seventy years ago, strikingly exhibits the change it has undergone : — " Malacca is inhabited by the Portuguese and by natives of the country, called Malays. The Portuguese have here a fortress, as at MozambicKie, and there is no fortress in all the Indies, after those of Mozambique and Ormuz, where the captains perform their duty better than in this one. This place is the market of all India, of China, of the Moluccas, and of other islands round about, from all wliich places, as well as from Banda, Java, Sumatra, Siam, Pegu, Bengal, Coromandel, and India, arrive ships, which come and go incessantly, charged with an infinity of merchandises. There would be m this place a much g[reater number of Portuguese if it were not for the in- convenience and unhealthiness of the air, which is hurtful not only to strangers, but also to natives of the country. Thence it is that all who live in the country pay tribute of their health, sufiering[ from a certain disease, which makes them lose either their skin or their hair. And those who escape consider it a miracle, which occasions many to leave the country, while the ardent desire of gain induces others to risk their health, and en- deavour to endure such an atmosphere. The origin of this town, as the natives say, was very small, only having at the beginning, by reason of the unhealthiness of the air, but six or seven fishermen who inhabited it. But the number was increased by the meeting of fishermen from Siam, Pegu, and Bengal, who came and built a city, and established a peculiar language, drawn from tlie most elegant modes of speaking of other nations, so that in fact the language of the Malays is at present the most refined, exact, and celebrated of all the East. The name of Malacca was given to this town, which, by the convenience of its situation, in a short time grew to such wealth, that it does not yield to the most powerful towns and regions round about. The natives, both men and women, are very courteous, and are reckoned the most skilful in the world in compliments, and study much to compose and repeat verses and love-songs. Their language is in vogue through tlie Indies, as the French is here." At present, a vessel over a hundred tons hardly ever enters its port, and the trade is entirely confined to a few petty pro- ducts of the forests, and to the fruit, which the trees plantea by the old Portuguese now produce for the enjoyment of the inhabitants of Singapore. Although rather subject to fevers, it is not at present considered very unhealthy. III.] MALACCA AND MOUNT OPHIR. 21 The population of Malacca consists of several races. The ubio[uitous Chinese are perhaps the most numerous, keeping up their manners^ customs, and language ; the indigenous Malays are next in point of numbers, and their language is the Lingua- franca of the place. Next come the descendants of the Portu- fuese — a mixed, degi-adedj and degenerate race, but who still eep up the use of their mother tongue, though ruefully mutilated in grammar ; and then there are the English rulers, and the descendants of the Dutch, who all speak English. The Portuguese spoken at Malacca is a useful philological phe- nomenon. The verbs have mostly lost their inflections, and one form does for all moods, tenses, numbers, and persons. Eu vai^ serves for " I go," " I went," or, " I will go." Adjectives, too, have been deprived of their feminine and plural terminations, so that the language is reduced to a marvellous simplicity, and, with the admixture of a few Malay words, becomes rather puzzling to one who has heard only the pUre Lusitanian. In costume these several peoples are as varied as in their speech. The English preserve the tight-fitting coat, waistcoat, and trousers, and the acx)minable hat and cravat j the Portuguese patronize a light jacket, or^ more frequently, shirt and trousers only • the Malays wear their national jacket and saronc; (a kind of kilt), with loose drawers ; while the Chinese never depart in the least from their national dress, which, indeed, it is impossible to improve for a tropical climate, whether as regards comfort or appearance. The loosely-hanging trousers, and neat white lialf- shirt half-jacket, are exactly what a dress should be in this low latitude. I engaged two Portuguese to accompany me into the interior ; one as a cook, the other to shoot and skin birds, which is quite a trade in Malacca. I first stayed a fortnight at a village called Gading, where I was accommodated in the house of some Chinese converts, to whom I was recommended by the Jesuit missionaries. The house was a mere shed, but it was kept clean, and I made myself sufficiently comfortable. Mv hosts were forming a pepper and gambir plantation, and in the immediate neighbourhood were extensive tin- washings, employing over a thousand Chinesa The tin is obtained in the form of black grains from beds of quartzose sand, and is melted into ingots in rude clay furnaces. The soil seemed poor, and the forest was very dense with undergrowth, and not at all productive of insects ; but, on the other hand, birds were abundant, and I was at once introduced to the rich ornithological treasures of the Malayan region. The very first time I fired my gun I brought down one of the most curious and beautiful of the Malacca birds, the blue-billed gaper (Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchus), called by the Malays the " Kain-bird. It is about the size of a starling, black and rich claret colour with white shoulder stripes, and a very large and broad bill of the most pure cobalt blue above and orange THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. below, while the iris is emerald green. As the skins dry the bill turns dull black, but even then the bird is handsome. When fresh killed, the contrast of the vivid blue with the rich colours of the plumage is remarkably striking and beautiful. The lovely Eastern trogons, witli their rich brown backs, beautifuUv pencilled wings, and crimson breasts, were also soon obtainea, as well as the large ^reen barbets (Megalsema versicolor) — fruit- eating birds, something like small toucans, with a short, straight bristly bill, and whose head and neck are variegated with patches of the most vivid blue and crimson. A day or two after, my hunter brought me a specimen of the green gaper (Calyptomena vindis), which is like a small cock-of-the-rock, but entirely of the most vivid green, delicately marked on the wings with black bars. Handsome woodpeckers and gay king- fishers, green and brown cuckoos with velvety red races and green oeaks, red-breasted doves and metallic honeysuckers, were brought in day after day, and kept me in a continual state of pleasui*able excitement. After a fortnight one of ray servants was seized with fever, and on returning to Malacca, the same disease attacked the other as well as myself. By a liberal use of quinine, I soon recovered, and obtaining other men, went to stay at the Gk)vernment bungalow of Ayer-panas, accompanied by a young gentleman, a native of the place, who had a taste for natural history. At Ayer-panas we had a comfortable house to stay in, and plenty of room to dr^ and preserve our specimens ; but, owing to there being no industrious Chinese to cut doiyn timber, insects were comparatively scarce, with the exception of butter- flies, of wliich I formed a very fine collection. The manner in which I obtained one fine insect was curious, and indicates how fragmentary and imperfect a traveller's collection must neces- sarily be. I was one afternoon walking along a favourite road through the forest, with my gun, when I saw a butterfly on the ground. It was large, handsome, and quite new to me, and I got close to it before it flew away. I then observed that it had been settling on the dung of some carnivorous animal. Thinking it might return to the same spot, I next day after breakfast took my net, and as I approached the place was delighted to see the same buttei'fly sitting on the same piece of dung, and suc- ceeded in capturing it. ft was an entirely new species of great beauty, and has oeen named by Mr. Hewitson Nymphalis calydonia. I never saw another specimen of it, and it was only after twelve years had elapsea that a second individual reached this country from the north-western part of Borneo. Having determined to visit Mount Ophir, wliich is situated in the middle of the peninsula about fifty miles east of Malacca, we engaged six Malays to accompany us and carry our baggage. As we meant to stav at least a week at the mountain, we took with us a good supply of rice, a little biscuit, butter, and coffees some dried fish ana a little brandy, with blankets, a change oi in.] MALACCA AND MOUNT OPHIB. 28 clothes, insect And bird boxes, nets, ^ns, and ammunition. The distance from Ayer-panas was supposed to be about thii-ty miles. Our first day's march lay through S latches of orest clear- ings and Ma- lay villages, and was pleas- ant enough. At night we slept at the bouse of a Ma- lay <^ief, wlio lent us a ve- randah, and B^ve some eggs. The countrygot will hilly. We passe tensive forests, often up to our ' and were much a leeches for which famous. These 1 infest the leaici by the side of t when a passengf they stretch thei full length, and any part oi his < quit tlieir leaf an Tliey then creep l^s, or other pa and suck their generally &und 1 a dozen on each ( t^uently on onr 1 times on our Iw one who sucked h sideof niy neck.t missed the juguU are many species leeches. Allare small, but some b»m imhh or houht orBim. are beautifully marked with stripes of bright yellow. They probably attach themselves to deer or other animals which frequent the forest ^ths, and 24 THE MALAY AECHIPELAGO. [chap. have thus acquired the singular habit of stretching' themselves out at the sound of a footstep or of rustling foliage. Early in the afternoon we reached the foot of the mountain, and en- camped by the side of a fine stream, whose rocky banks were overgrown with ferns. Our oldest Malay had been accustomed to shoot birds in this neighbourhood for the Malacca dealers, and had been to the top of the mountain, and while we amused ourselves shooting and insect hunting, he went with two others to clear the path for our ascent the next day. Early next morning we started after oreakfast, carrying blankets and provisions, as we intended to sleep upon the mountain. After passing a little tangled jungle and swampy thickets through which our men had clearea a path, we emerged into a fine lofty forest pretty clear of undergrowth, and in which we could walk freely. We ascended steadily up a moderate slope for several miles, having a deep ravine on our left. We then had a level plateau or shoulder to cross, after wliicli the ascent was steeper and the forest denser till we came out upon the " Padang-batu," or stone field, a place of which we had heard much, but could never get any one to describe intelligibly. We found it to be a steep slope of even rock, ex- tending along the mountain side farther than we could see. Parts of it were quite bare, but where it was cracked and fissured there grew a most luxuriant vegetation, among which the pitcher plants were the most remarkable. Thexse wonderful plants never seem to succeed well in our hot-houses^ and are there seen to little advantage. Here they grew up into half- climbing shrubs, their curious pitchers of various sizes and forms hanging abundantly from their leaves, and continually exciting our admiration by their size and beauty. A few conifersB of the genus Dacrydium here first appeared, and in the thickets just above the rocky surface we walked through groves of those splendid ferns Dinteris Horsfieldii and Matonia pectinata, which l)ear large spreaaing palmate fronds on slender stems six or eight feet high. The Matonia is the tallest and most elegant, and is known only from this mountain, and neither of them is yet introduced into our hot-houses. It was very striking to come out from the dark, cool, and shady forest in which we had been ascending since we started, on to this hot, open rocky slope where we seemed to have entered at one step from a lowland to an alpine vegetation. The height, as measured by a sympiesometer, was about 2,800 feet. We had been told we should find water at Padang- batu, but we looked about for it in vain, as we were exceed- ingly thirsty. At last we turned to the pitcher-plants, but the water contained in the pitchers (about half a pmt in each) was full of insects and otherwise uninviting. On tasting it, however, we found it very palatable, though rather warm, and we all quenched our thirst from these natural jugs. Farther on we came to forest again, but of a more dwarfed and iii.l MALACCA AND MOUNT OPHIR. 25 stunted character than below ; and alternately passing along ridges and descending into valleys, we reached a peak separated from the true summit of the mountain by a considerable chasm. Here our portera gave in, and declared they could carry their loads no further ; and certainly the ascent to the highest peak was very precipitous. But on the spot where we were there was no water, whereas it was well known tliat there was a spring close to the summit, so we determined to go on without them, and carry with us only what was absolutely necessary. We accordingly took a blanket each, and divided our food and other articles among us, and went on with only the old Malay and his son. After descending into the saddle between the tw^o peaks we found the ascent very laborious, the slope being so steep as often to necessitate hand -climbing. Besides a bushy vegetation the ground was covered knee>deep with mosses on a foundation of decaying leaves and rugged rock, and it was a hard hour's climb to the small ledge just below the summit, where an over- hanging rock forms a convenient shelter, and a little basin collects the trickling water. Here we put down our loads, and in a few minutes more stood on the summit of Mount Ophir, 4,000 feet above the sea. The top is a small rocky platform covered with rhododendrons and other shrubs. The afternoon WHS clear, and the view fine in its way — ranges of hill and valley everywhere covered with interminable forest, witli glis- tening nyers winding among them. In a distant view a forest country is very monotonous, and no mountain I have ever ascended in the tropics presents a panorama equal to that from Snowdon, while the views in Switzerland are immeasurably superior. When boiling our coffee I took observations with a good boiling-x)oint thermometer, as well as with the sympieso- meter, and we then enjoyed our evening meal and the noble prospect that lay before us. The night was calm and very mild, and having made a bed of twigs and branches over which we laid our blanKets, we passed a verv comfortable night. Our porters had followed us after a rest, bringing only their rice to cook, and luckily we did not require tlie baggage they left behind them. In the morning I caught a few butterflies and beetles, and my friend got a few land-shells : and we then descended, bringing with us some specimens oi the ferns and pitcher-plants of Padang-batu. The place where we had first encamped at the foot of the mountain, being very gloomy, we chose another in a kind of swamp near a stream overgrown with Zingiberaceous plants, in which a clearing was easily made. Here our men built two little huts without sides, that would just shelter us from the rain; and we lived in them for a week, shooting and insect- hunting:, and roaming about the forests at the foot of the mountain. This was the countiy of the great Argus pheasant, and we continually heard its cry. On asking the old Malay to 26 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. try and slioot one for me, he told me that although he had been for twenty years shooting bii^ds in these forests he had never yet shot one, and had never even seen one except after it had been caught. The bird is so exceedingly shy and vary, and runs alone the ground in the densest parts of the forest so quickly, that it is impossible to get near it; and its sober colours and rich eye-like spots, wliicli are so ornamental when seen in a inuseum, must harmonize well with the dead leaves among which it dwells, and render it very inconspicuous. All the specimens sold in Malacca are caught in snares, and my informant, though he had shot none, had snared plenty. The tiger and rhinoceros are still found here, and a few years ago elephants abounded, but they have lately all disap- peared. We found some heaps of dung, which seemed to be that of elephants, and some tracks of the rhinoceros, but saw none of the animals. We, however, kept a fire up all night in case any of these creatures should visit us, and two of our men declared that thev did one day see a rhinoceros. When our rice was finished, and our boxes full of specimens, we returned to Ayer-panas, and a few days afterwards went on to Malacca, and thence to Singapore. Mount Ophir has quite a reputation for fever, and all our friends wei^ astonished at our recklessness in staying so long at its foot ; but we none of us suffered in the least, and I shall ever look back with pleasure to my trip, as heiuf my first introduction to mountain scenery in the Eastern tropics. The meagreness and brevity of the sketch I have here given of ray visit to Singapore and the Malay Peninsula is due to my having trusted chienv to some private letters and a note-book, which were lost ; and to a paper on Malacca and Mount Ophir which was sent to the Royal Geographical Society, but wnich was neither read nor printed, owing to press of matter at the end of a session, and the MSS. of wtiich cannot now be found. I the less regret this, however, as so many works have been written on these parts ; and I always intended to pass liglitly over my travels in the western and better known portions of the Archipelago, in order to devote more space to the remoter districts, about which hardly anything has been written in the English language. CHAPTER IV. BORNEO— THE ORANG-UTAN. I ARRIVED at Sarawak on November 1st, 1854, and left it on Januaiy 25th, 1856. In the interval I resided at many different localities, and saw a good deal of the Dyak tribes as well as of the Bornean Malays. I was hospitably entertained by Sir IV.] BORNEO— THE ORANG-UTAN. 27 James Brooke, and lived in his house whenever I was at the town of Sarawak in the intervals of my journeys. But so many books have been written about this part of Borneo since I was there, that I shall avoid going into details of what I saw and heard and thought of Sarawak and its ruler, confining my- self chiefly to my experiences as a naturalist in search of sheila, insects, birds, and the Orang-utan, and to an account of a journey through a part of the interior seldom visited by Europeans. The first four months of my visit were spent in various parts of the Sarawak Kiver, from Santubong at its mouth up to the picturesque limestone mountains and Chinese gold-fields of Bow and Bed^. This part of the country has been so frequently desciibed that I snail pass it over, especially as, owing to its being the height of the wet season, my collections were com- paratively poor and insignificant. In March, 1855, 1 determined to go to the coal- works which were being opened near the Simunjon Biver, a small branch of the S^ong, a river east of Sarawak and between it and the Batang-Lupar. The Simunjon enters the Sddong Eiver about twenty miles up. It is very narrow and very winding, and niucli overshadowed by the lofty forest, which sometimes almost meets over it. The whole country between it and the sea is a perfectly level forest-covered swamp, out of which rise a few isolated hills, at the foot of one of which the works are situated. From the landing-place to the hill a Dyak road had been formed, which consisted solely of tree-trunks laid end to end. Along these the bare-footed natives walk and carry heavy burdens with the greatest ease, but to a booted European it is very slippery work, and when one's attention is constantlv attracted by the various objects of interest around, a few tumbles into the bog are almost inevitable. During my first walk along tliis road I saw few insects or birds, but noticed some verv handsome orchids in flower, of the genus Ccelogyne. a group which I after- wards found to be very abundant, ana characteristic of the district. On the slope of t)ie hill near its foot a patch of forest had been cleared away, and several rude houses erected, in which were residing Mr. Coulson, the engineer, and a number of Chinese workmen. I was at first kindly accommodated in Mr. Coulson's house, but finding the spot very suitable for me, and ofifering great facilities for collecting, I had a small house of two rooms and a verandah built for myself. Here I remained nearly nine months, and made an immense collection of insects, to which class of animals I devoted my chief attention, owing to the circumstances being especially favourable. In the tropics a large proportion of the insects of all orders, and especially of the large and favourite group of beetles, are more or less dependent on vegetation, and particularly on timber, bark, ana leaves in various stages of decay. In the un- touched virgin forest, the insects which frequent such situations 28 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. are scattered over an immense extent of country, at spots where trees have fallen through decay and old age, or have succumbed to the fury of the tempest ; and twenty square miles of country may not contain so manjr fallen and decayed trees as are to be found in any small clearing. The quantity and the variety of beetles and of many other insects that can l)e collected at a given time in any tropical locality, will depend, first upon the imme- diate vicinity of a gi*eat extent of \'irgin forest^ and secondly upon tlie quantity of trees that for some months past have been, and which are still being cut down, and left to dry and decay upon the ground. Now, during my whole twelve years* collect- ing in the western and eastern tropics, I never enjoyed such advantages in this respect as at the Simunjon coal-works. For several months from twenty to fifty Chinamen and Dyaks were employed almost exclusively in clearing a large space in the forest, and in making a wide opening for a railroad to the S4dong River, two miles distant. Besides this, sawpits were established at various points in the jungle, and large trees were felled to be cut up into beams ana planks. For hundreds of miles in every direction a magnificent forest extended over plain and mountain, rock and morass, and I arrived at tlie s]3ot just as the rains began to diminish and the daily sunshine to in- crease : a time which I have always found the most favourable season for collecting. The number of openings and sunny places and of pathways, were also an attraction to wasps and butter- flies : and by paying a cent each for all insects that were brought me, 1 obtained from the Dyaks and the Chinamen many fine locusts and Phasmidae, as well as numbers of handsome beetles When I arrived at the mines, on the 14th of March, I had collected in the four preceding months, 320 different kinds of beetles. In less than a fortnight I had doubled this number, an average of about twenty-four new species every day. On one day I collected seventy-six different kinds, of which thirty-four were new to me. By the end of April I had more than a thousand species, and they then went on increasing at a slower rate ; so ttiat I obtained altogether in Borneo about two thousand dis- tinct kinds, of which all but about a hundred were collected at this place, and on scarcely more than a square mile of ground. The most numerous and most interesting groups of beetles were the Longicoms and Rhynchophora, both pre-eminently wood- feeders. The former, characterized by their graceful forms and long antennae, were especially numerous, amounting to nearly three hundred species, nine-tenths of which were entirely new, and many of them remarkable for their large size, strange forms, and beautiful colouring. The latter correspond to our weevils and allied groups, and in the tropics are exceedingly numerous and varied, often swarming upon dead timber, so that I some- times obtained fifty or sixty different kinds in a aay. My Bomean collections of this group exceeded Hve hundred species. My collection of butterflies was not large ; but I obtained ll i I i IV.] BORNEO— THE ORANG-UTAN. 29 some rare and very handsome insects, the most remarkable being the Omithoptera Brookeana, one of the most elegant species known. This beautiful creature has very long and ]3ointed wings, almost resembling a sphinx moth in shape. It is deep velvety black, with a curved band of spots of a brilliant metallic- green colour extending across the wings from tip to tip, eacli six>t being shaped exactly like a small triangular feather, and having very much the effect of a row of the wing coverts of the Mexican trogon laid upon black velvet. The only other marks are a broad neck-collar of vivid ciimson, and a few delicate white touches on the outer margins of the hind wings.. This species, which was then quite new^ and which I named after Sir James Brooke, was very rare. It was seen occasionally flying swiftly in the clearings, and now and then settling for an in- stant at i)uddle8 and muddy places, so that I only succeeded in capturing two or three specimens. In some other parts of the country I was assured it was abundant, and a good many si)ecimens have been sent to England ; but as yet all have been males, and we are quite unable to conjecture what the female may be like, owing to the extreme isolation of the species, and its want of close affinity to any other known insect.^ One of the most curious and interesting reptiles which I met witli in Borneo was a large tree-frog, which was brought me by one of the Chinese workmen. He assured me that he had seen it come down, in a slanting direction, from a high tree, as if it flew. On examining it, I found the toes very long and fully webbed to their very extremity, so that when expanded they offered a surface much larger than that of the body. The fore legs were also bordered by a membrane, and the body was capable of considerable inflation. The back and limbs were of a very deep shining green colour, the under surface and the inner toes yellow, while the webs were black, rayed with yellow. The body was about four inches long, while the webs of each hind foot, when fully ^expanded, covered a surface of four square inches, and the webs of all the feet together about twelve square inches. As the extremities of the toes have dilated discs for adhesion, showing the creature to be a true tree-frog, it is difficult to imagine that this immense membrane of the toes can be for the purpose of swimming only, and the account of the Chinaman, that it flew down from the tree, becomes more credible. This is, I believe, the first instance known of a ^^ flying frog," and it is very interesting to Darwinians as showing, that the variability of the toes which have been already modified for purposes of swimming and adhesive climbing, have been taken advantage of to enable an allied species to pass through the air like the flying lizard. It would appear to be a new species of the genus 1 Females have since been captured in some plenty. They resemble the male, but have more white and less brilliant colours. 30 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. RhtKOphorus, whicli coneiats of several frogs of a much smaller sUe than this, and having the webe of the toes less developed. During my stay in Borneo I had no hunter to shoot lor nie regularly, and, being myself fully occupied with insects, I did not succeed in obtaining a very good collection of the birds or Mammalia, many of which, however, are well known, being identical with species found in Malacca. Among the Mammalia were fivesquirrels, two tiger-cats, the Gymnurus Bafllesii, which looks like a cross between a pig and a polecat, and the Cynogale Bennetti— a rare, otter-like animal, with very broad muzzle clothed with long bristles. One of my chief objects in coming to stay at Simunjon was to see the Orang-utan (or great man-like ape of Borneo) in his native haunts, to study his habits, and obtani good specimens of the different varieties and species of both sexes, and of the adult and young animals. In all these objects I succeeded beyond my ex- pectations, and will now give some account of my experience in iv.l BORNEO—THE ORANG-UTAN. 81 hunting the Orang-utan, or ** Mias," as it is called by the natives : and as this name is shorty and easily pronounced, I shall generally use it in preference to Simia satynis, or Orang-utan. Just a week after my arrival at the mines, I first saw a Mias. I was out collecting insects, not more than a quarter of a miJe from the house, when I heard a rustling in a tree near, and, looking up, saw a large red-haired animal moving slowly along, hanging from the branches by its arms. It passed on from tree to tree till it was lost in the jungle, which was so swampy that I could not follow it. This mode of progression was, however, very unusual, and is more characteristic of the Hylobates than of the Orang. I suppose there was some individual peculiarity in this animal, or the nature of the trees just in this place rendered it the most easy mode of progression. About a foi*tnight afterwards I heard that one was feeding in a tree in the swamp just below the house, and, taking my gun, was fortunate enough to find it in the same place. As soon as I approached, it tried to conceal itself among the foliage ; but I got a shot at it, and the second barrel caused it to fall down almost dead, the two balls having entered the body. This was a male, about half-grown, being scarcely three feet high. On April 26th, I was out shooting with two Dyaks, when we found another about the same size. It fell at the firetshot, but did not seem much hurt, and immediately climbed up the nearest tree, when I fired, and it again fell, with a broken arm and a wound in the body. The two Dyaks now ran up to it, and each seized hold of a hand, telling me to cut a pole, and they would secure it. But although one arm >vas broKen, and it was only a half- grown animal, it was too strong for these young savages, drawing them up towards its mouth notwithstanding all their efforts, so that they were again obliged to leave go, or they would have been seriouslv bitten. It now began climbing up the tree again ; and, to avoid trouble, I shot it through the heart. On May 2nd, I again found one on a very high tree, when I had only a small 80-lx)re gun with me. However, I fired at it, and on seeing me, it began howling in a strange voice like a cough, and seemed in a great rage, breaking off branches with its hands and throwing them down, and then soon made off over the tree-tops. I did not care to follow it, as it was swampy, and in parts dangerous, and I might easily have lost myself in the eagerness of pursuit. On the 12tn of May I found another, which behaved in a very similar manner, howling and hooting with ra^e, and throwing down branches. I shot at it five times, and it remained dead on the top of the tree, supported in a fork in such a manner that it would evidently not fall. I therefore returned iiome, and luckily found some Dyaks, who came back with me, and climbed up the tree for the animal. This was tlie first full- grovfiL 8X)ecimen I had obtained ; but it was a female, and not nearly so large or remarkable as the full-grown males. It was, 82 THE MALAY ABCKIPELAGO. [cup. however, 3ft. ein. high, and its nrms stretched out to a width of 6ft. 6iii. I preserved the skin of this specimen in a cask of nrrack, and prepared a perfect skeleton, which was afterwards purchased for the Derby Museum. Oniy four days afterwards some Dyaks saw another Mias near the same place, and came to t«ll me. We found it to be a rather Inrse one, very high up on a tall tree. At the second shot it fell roUine over, but almost immediately got up again and began to climb. At a third shot it fell dead. This was also a full-grown female, and while preparing to carry it home, we FUiALi ORAKO-UTAN. (Fnm a pliolofrapK) found a young one face downwards in the bog. This little creature was only about a foot long, and had evidently been hanging to its mother wlien she first fell. Luckily it did not appear to have been wounded, and after we had cleaned the mud out of its mouth it began to cry out, and seemed quite strong and active. While carrying it nonie it got its hands in my beard, and grasped so tightly tjiat I had great difficulty in getting free, for the fingers are Habitually bent inwards at the last jomt so as to form complete hooks. At this time it had not a single tooth, but a few days afterwards it cut its two lower front teetJi. Unfortunately, I had no miik to give it as neither Malays, Chinese, nor Dyaks ever use the article, and I in IV.] BORNEO—THE ORANG-UTAN. 3S vain inquired for any female animal that could suckle my little infant. I was therefore obliged to ^ve it rice-water from a bottle with a quill in the cork, which after a few trials it learned to suck very well. This was very meagre diet, and the little creature did not thrive well on it, although I added sugar and cocoa-nut milk occasionally, to make it more nourishing. When I put my finger in its mouth it sucked with great vigour, drawing in its cheeks with all its might in the vain effort to extract some milk, and only after persevering a long time would it give up in disgust, and set up a scream very like that of a baby in similar circumstances. When handled or nursed, it was very auiet and contented, but when laid down by itself would invariably cry ; and for the first few nights was very restless and noisy. I fitted up a little box for a cradle, with a soft mat for it to lie upon, which was changed and washed every day ; and I soon found it necessary to wash the little Mias as well. After I had done so a few times, it came to like the operation, and as soon as it was dirty would begin crying, and not leave off till I took it out and carried it to the spout, when it immediately became quiet, although it would wince a little at the first rush of the cold water and make ridiculously wry faces while the stream was running over its head. It enjoyed the wiping and rubbing dry amazingly, and when I brushed its hair seemed to be perfectly happy, lying quite still with its arms and legs stretched out while I thoroughly bruslied the long hair of its back and arms. For the first few days it clung desperately with all four hands to whatever it could lay hold of, and I had to be careful to ke^p my beard out of its way, as its fingers clutched hold of hair more tenaciously than anything else, and it was impossible to free myself without assistance. When restless, it would struggle about with its hands up in the air trying to find something to take hold of, and, when it had got a bit of stick or rag in two or three of itk hands, seemed quite happy. For want of some- thing else, it would often seize its own feet, and after a time it would constantly cross its arms and grasp with each hand the long hair that g^rew just below the opposite slioulder. The great tenacity of its grasp soon diminished, and I was obliged to invent some means to give it exercise and strengthen its limbs. For this purpose I made a short ladder of three or four rounds, on which I put it to hang for a quarter of an hour at a time. At first it seemed much pleased, but it could not get all four hands in a comfortable position, and, after changing about several times, would leave hold of one hand after the other, and drop on to the floor. Sometimes, when hanging only by two handa, it would loose one, and cross it to the opposite shoulder, grasping its own hair ; and, as this seemed much more agreeable than the stick, it would then loose the other and tumble down, when it would cross both and lie on its back quite contentedly, never seeming to be hurt by its numerous tumbles. Finding it 84 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [ohap. so fond of hair, I endeavoured to make an artificial mother, bv wrapping up a piece of buffalo-skin into a bundle, and suspena- ing It about a foot from the fioor. At first this seemed to suit it admirably, as it could sprawl its legs about and always find some hair, which it grasped with the greatest tenacity. I was now in Ropes that Iliad made the little orphan quite happy; and so it seemed for some time, till it l)egan to remember its lost parent, and try to suck. It would pull itself up close to the skin, and trv about everywhere for a likely place ; but, as it only succeeded in getting mouthfuls of hair and wool, it would be gpreatly disgusted, and scream violently^, and after two or three attempts, let go altogether. One day it got some wool into its throat, and I thought it would have choked, but after much gasping it recovered, and I was obliged to take the imitation mother to pieces again, and give up this last attempt to exercise the little creature. After the first week I found I could feed it better with a spoon, and give it a little more varied and more solid food. Well- soaked biscuit mixed with a little egg and sugar, and sometimes sweet potatoes, were readily eaten ; and it was a never-failing amusement tp observe the curious changes of countenance by which it would express its approval or dislike of what was g^ven to it. The poor little thing would lick its lips, draw in its cheeks, and turn up its eyes with an expression of the most supreme satisfaction when it had a mouthful particularly to its taste. On the other hand, when its food was not sufficiently sweet or palatable, it would turn the mouthful about with its tongue for a moment as if trying to extract what flavour there was, and then pusli it all out between its lips. If the same food was con- tinued, it would set up a scream and kick about violently, exactly like a baby in a passion. After I had had the little Mias about three weeks, I fortunately obtained a young hare-lip monkey (Macacus cynomolgus), which, though small, was very active, and could feed itself. I placed it in the same box with the Mias, and they immediately became excellent friends, neither exhibiting the least fear of the other. The little monkey would sit upon the other's stomach, or even on its face, without the least regard to its feelings. While I was feeding the Mias, the monkey would sit by, picking up all that was spilt, and occasionally putting out its hands to intercept the spoon ; and as soon as 1 had finished would pick off what was left sticking to the Mias's lips, and then pull open its mouth and see if any still remained inside ; afterwards lying down on the poor creature's stomach as on a comfortable cushion. The little helpless Mias would submit to all these insults with the most exemplary patience, only too glad to have something warm near it, which it could clasp affectionately in its arms. It some- times, however, had its revenge ; for when the monkey wanted to go away, tiie Mias would hold on as long as it could by the loose skin of its back or head, or by its tail, and it was only IV.] BORNEO— THE ORANG-UTAN. 35 after many vigorous jumps that the monkey could make his escape. It was curious to observe the different actions of tliese two animals, which could not liave differed much in age. The Mias, like a very young baby, lying on its back quite helpless^ rolling lazily from side to siie, stretching out all four hands into the air, wishing to grasp something, out hardly able to guide its fingers to any definite object ; and when dissatisfied, opening wide its almost toothless mouth, and expressing its wants by a most infantine scream. The little monkey, on the otlier hand, in constant motion ; running and jumping about wherever it pleased, examining everything around it, seizing hold of the smallest objects witli the greatest precision, balancing itself on the edge of the box, or running up a post, and helping itself to anything eat«ible that came in its way. There could hardly be a greater contrast, and the baby Mias looked more baby-like by the comparison. When I had liad it about a month, it began to exiiibit some signs of learning to run alone. When laid upon the floor it would push itselr along by its legs, or roll itself over, and thus make an unwieldy progression. When lying in the box it would lift itself up to the edge into almost an erect position, and once or twice succeeded in tumbling out. When left dirty, or hungry, or otherwise neglected, it woiud scream violently till attended to, varied by a kind of coughing or pumping noise, very similar to that which is made by the adult animal. If no one was in the house, or its cries were not attended to, it would be quiet after a little while, but the moment it heard a footstep would begin again harder than ever. After five weeks it cut its two upper front teeth, but in all this time it had not grown the least bit, remaining both in size and weight the same as when I first procured it. This was no doubt owing to the want of milk or other equally nourishing food. Rice-water, rice, and biscuits were but a poor substitute, and the expressed milk of the cocoa-nut wliich I sometimes gave it did not quite agree with its stomach. To this I imputed an attack of diarrhoea from which the poor little creature suflered greatly, but a small dose of castor-oil operated well^ and cured it. A week or two afterwards it was again taken ill, and this time more seriously. The symptoms were exactly those of in- termittent fever, accompanied by watery swellings on the feet and head. It lost all appetite for its food, and, after lingering for a week a most pitiable object, died, after being in my possession nearljr three months. I much regretted the loss of my little pet, which I had at one time looked forward to bring- ing up to years of maturity, and taking home to England. For several months it had afforded me daily amusement by its curious ways and the inimitably ludicrous expression of its little countenance. Its weight was three pounds nine ounces, its height fourteen inches, and the spread of its arms twenty-three D 2 3C THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. inches. I preserved its skin and skeleton, and in doing so found that when it fell from the tree it must have broken an arm and a leg, which had, however, united so rapidly that I had only noticed the hard swellings on the limbs where the irregular junction of the bones had taken place. Exactly a week after I had caught this interesting little animal I succeeded in shooting a full-grown male Orang-utan. I had just come home from an entomologizing excursion when Charles^ rushed in out of breath witli running and excitement, and exclaimed, interrupted by gasps, **Get the gun, sir, — be quick,— such a large Mias ! " " Where is it ? " I asked, taking hold of my gun as 1 spoke, which happened luckily to have one bart*el loaded with ball. "Close by, sir — on the path to the mines — he can't get away." Two Dyaks chanced to be in the house at the time, so I called them to accompany me, and started off, telling Charley to bring all the ammunition aft^r me as soon as possible. The path from our clearing to the minas led along the side of the hill a little way up its slope, and parallel with it at the foot a wide opening had been r.iade for a road, in whicli several Chinamen were working, so that the animal could not escape into the swampy forests l>elow without descending to cross the road or ascending to ^et round the clearincrs. We walked cautiously along, not making the least noise, ana listen- ing attentively for any sound which might betray the presence of the Mias, stopping at intervals to gaze upwards. Charley soon joined us at the place where he had seen the creature, and having taken the ammunition and put a bullet in the other barrel we dispersed a little, feeling sure that it must be some- where near, as it had prol>ably descended the hill, and would not be likely to return again. After a short time I heard a very slight rustling sound overhead, but on gazing up could see nothing. I moved about in every direction to get a full view into every part of the tree under whicli I had been standing, when I again heard the same noise but louder, and saw the leaves shaking as if caused b;^ the motion of some heavy animal which moved off to an adjoining tree. I immediately shouted for all of them to come up and try and get a view, so as to allow me to have a shot. This was not an easy matter, as the Mias had a knack of selecting places with dense foliage beneath. Very soon, however, one of the Dyaks called me and pointed upwards, and on looking I saw a great red hairy body and a huge black face gazing down from a Rreat height, as if wanting to know what was making such a distu n>ance below. I instantly fired, and he made off at once, so that I could not then tell whether I had hit him. He now moved very rapidly and very noiselessly for so laree an animal, so I told the Dyaks to follow and keep him in sight while I loaded. The jungle was here full of large angular frag- ments of rock from the mountain above, and thick with hanging 1 Charles Allen, an English lad of sixteen, acoompaniod inc as an assistant. IT.] BORNEO— THE ORANG-UTAN. 37 and twisted creepers. Running, climbing, and creeping among these, we came up with the creature on the top of a high tree near the road, where the Chinamen had discovered him, and were shouting their astonishment with open mouth : " Ya Ya, Tuan ; Orang-utan, Tuan.'' Seeing that he could not pass here witliout descending, he turned up again towards the hill, and I ffot two shots, and following quickly had two more by the time lie had asain reached the path ; but he was always more or less concealed by foliage, and protected by the large branch on which lie was walking. Once while loading I had a splendid view of him, mo^dng along a large limb of a tree in a semi-erect posture, and showing him to be an animal of the largest size. At the path he got on to one of the loftiest trees in the forest, and we could see one leg hanging down useless, having been broken by a ball. He now fixedhimself in a fork, where he was hidden by thick foliage, and seemed disinclined to n)Ove. I was afraid he -would remain and die in this position, and as it was nearly evening I could not have got tlie ti-ee cut down that day. I tlierefore fired again, and he then moved off, and going up the hill was obliged to get on to some lower trees, on the branches of one of which he fixed himself in such a position that he could not fall, and lay all in a heap as if dead, or dying. I now wanted the Dyaks to go up and cut off the branch he was resting on, but they were afraid, saying he was not dead, and would come and attack them. Wo then shook the adjoining tree, pulled the hanging creepers, and did all we could to disturb liim, out without eflfect, so 1 thought it best to send for two CJnnamcn with axes to cut down the tree. While the messenger ■was gone, however, one of tlie Dyaks took courage and climbed towards nim, but the Mias did not wait for him to get near, moving off to another tree, where he got on to a dense mass oi branches and creepers which almost completelv hid him from our view. The tree was luckily a small one, so when the axes came we soon had it cut through ; but it was so held up bv jungle ix)p)es and climbers to adjoining trees that it only fell into a sloping position. The Mias did not move, and I began to fear that after all we should not get him, as it was near evening, and half a dozen more trees would have to be cut down before the one he was on would fall. As a last resource we all began pulling at the creepers, which shook the tree very much, and, after a few minutes, when we had almost given up all hopes, down he came with a crash and a thud like the fall of a giant. And he was a giant, his head and body being full as large as a man's. He was of the kind called by the Dyaks " Mias Chappan," or **' Mias Pappan," which has the skin of the face broadenea out to a ridge or K)ld at each side. His outstretched arms measured seven feet three inches across, and his height, measuring fairly from the top of the head to the heel, was tour feet two inche^s. The body just below the arms was three feet two inches round, and was quite as long as a man's, the legs being exceedingly 38 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. short in proportion. On examination we found he had been dreadfully wounded. Both legs were broken. One hip-joint and the root of the spine completely shattered, and two bullets were found flattened in his neck and jaws ! Yet he was still alive when he fell. The two Chinamen carried him home tied to a pole, and I was occupied with Charley the whole of the next day, preparing the skin and boiling the bones to make a nerfect skeleton, whicn are now preserved in the Museum at Derby. About ten days after this, on June 4th, some Dyaks came to tell us that the day before a Mias had nearly killed one of their companions. A few miles down the river there is a Dyak house, and the inhabitants saw a large Orang feeding on the young shoots of a palm by the river-side. On being alarmed he re- treated towards the jungle which was close by, and a number of the men, armed with spears and choppers, ran out to intercept him. The man who was in front triecl to run his spear through the animal's body, but the Mias seized it in his hands, and in an instant got hold of the man's arm, which he seized in his mouth, making his teeth meet in the flesh above the elbow, which he tore and lacerated in a dreadful manner. Had not the others been close behind, tlie man would liave been more seriously injured, if not killed, as he was quite powerless ; but they soon destroyed the creature with their spears and choppers. The man remained ill for a long time, and never fully recovered the use of his arm. They told me tlie dead Mias was still lying where it had been killed) so I ofiered them a reward to bring it up to our landing- place immediately, which they promisea to do. They did not come, however, till the next day, and then decomposition ha^cl commenced, and f reat patches of the hair came oif, so that it was useless to skm it This I regretted much, as it was a very fine full-grown male. I cut off the head and took it home to clean, while I got my men to make a close fence about five feet high round the rest of the body, which would soon be devoured by maggots, small lizards, and ants, leaving me the skeleton. There was a great gash in his face, which had cut deep into the bone, but the skull was a very fine one, and the teeth remarkably large and perfect. On June 18th I had another great success, and obtained a fine adult male. A Chinaman told me he liad seen him feeding by the side of the path to the river, and I found him at the same place as the first individual I had shot. He was feeding on an oval green fruit having a fine red aiillus, like the mace which surrounds the nutmeg, and which alone he seemed to eat, biting off the thick outer rind and dropping it in a continual shower. I had found the same fruit in the stomach of some others which I had killed. Two shots caused this animal to loose his hold, but he hung for a considerable time by one liand, and then fell flat on his face and was half buried in the swamp. For several minutes he lay groaning and panting, while we stood close IV.] BORNEO—THE ORANG-UTAN. 89 round, expecting every breath to be his last. Suddenly, how- ever, by a violent effort he raised himself up, causing us all to step back a yard or two, when, standing nearly erect, he caught hold of a small tree, and began to ascend it. Another shot througli the back caused him to fall down dead. A flattened bullet was found in his tongue, having entered the lower jMirt of the abdomen and completely traversed the body, fracturing the first cervical vertebra. Yet it was after this fearful wound that lie had risen, and begun climbing with considerable facility. This also was a full-grown male of almost exactly the same dimensions as the other two I had measured. On June 21st I shot another adult female, which was eating fruit in a low tree, and was the only one which I ever killed by a single ball. On June 24th I was called by a Cliinaman to shoot a Mias, which, he said, was on a tree close by his heuse, at the coal- mines. Arriving at the place, we had some difficulty in finding the animal, as he had gone off into the jungle, which was very rocky and difficult to traverse. At last we found him up a very high tree, and could see that he was a male of the largest size. As soon as I had fired, he moved higher up the tree, and while he was doing so I fired again ; and we then saw that one arm was broken. He had now reached the very highest part of an immense tree, and immediately began breaking off Doughs all around, and laying them across and across to make a nest. It was very interesting to see how well he had chosen his place, and how rapidly he stretched out his unwounded arm in every direction, breaking off good-sized boughs with the greatest ease, and laving them back across each other, so that in a few minutes he had formed a compact mass of foliage, which entirely con- cealed him from our sight. He was evidently going to pass the night here, and would probablv get away early the next morn- ing, if not wounded too severefv. I therefore fired again several time& in hopes of making him leave his nest : but, though I felt sure I had hit him, as at each shot he moved a little, lie would not go away. At length he raised himself up, so that half his body was visible, and then gradually sank down, his head alone remaining on the edge of the nest. I now felt sure he was dead, and tried to persuade the Chinaman and his companion to cut down the tree j but it was a very large one, and they had been at work all day, and nothing would induce them to attempt it. The next morning, at daybreak, I came to the place, and found that the Mias was evidently dead, as his head was visible in exactly the same position as before. I now offered four China- men a day's wages each to cut the tree down at once, as a few hours of sunshine would cause decomposition on the surface of the skin ; but, after looking at it and trying it, they determined that it was very big and very hard, and would not attempt it. Had I doubled my offer, they would probably have accepted it, as it would not have been more than two or three hours work ; 40 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. and had I been on a short visit only I would have done so ; but as I was a resident, and intended remaining several months longer, it would not have answered to beffin paying too ex- orbitantly, or I should have got nothing oione in future at a lower rate. For some weeks after, a cloud of flies could be seen all day, hovering over the body of the dead Mias ; but in about a month all was quiet, and the body was evidently drying up under the influence of a vertical sun alternating with tropical rains. Two or three months later two Malays, on the offer of a dollar, climbed the tree, and let down tlie dried remains. The skin was almost entire, enclosing the skeleton, and inside wei'e millions of the pupa-cases of flies and other insects, with thousands of two or tiiree species of small necrophagous beetles. The skull had been much siiattered by balls, but the skeleton was perfect, except one small wrist- tx)ne, which had probably dropped out and oeen carried away by a lizard. Three days after I had shot this one and lost it, Charles found three small Orangs feeding together. We had a long chase after them, and had a good opportunity of seeing how they make their way from tree to tree, by always choosing those limbs whose branches are intermingled with those of some other tree, and then grasping several of the small twigs together Ijef ore they venture to swing themselves across. Yet they do this so quickly and certainly, that they make way among the trees at the rate of full five or six miles an hour, as we had continually to run to keep up with them. One of these we siiot and killed, but it re- mainect high up in the fork of a tree j and, as young animals are of comparatively little interest, I did not have the tree cut down to get it. At this time I had the misfortune to slip among some fallen trees, and hui*t my ankle, and, not being careful enough at first, it became a severe inflamed ulcer, which would not heal, and kept me a prisoner in the house the whole of July and part of August. When I could get out again, I determined to take a trip up a branch of the Simunjon River to Semdbang, where there was said to be a large Dyak house, a mountain with abundance of fruit, and plenty of Orangs and fine birds. As the river was very narrow, and I was obliged to go in a very small boat with little luggage, I only took witii me a Chinese lx)y as a servant. I carried a cask of medicated arrack to put Mias skins in, and stores and ammunition for a fortnight. Alter a few miles, the stream became very narrow and winding, and the whole country on each side was flooded. On the banks were abundance of monkeys — the common Macacus cynomolgus, a black Semnopithecus, and the extraordinary long-nosed monkey (Nasalislarvatus), which is as large as a three-year-old child, has a very long tail, and a fleshy nose, longer than tliat of the biggest- nosed man. The further we went on the narrower and more >^4nding the stream became ; fallen trees Rometimes blocked up IV.] BORNEO— THE ORANG-UTAN. 41 our passage, and sometimes tangled branches and creepers met completely across it, and had to be cut away before we could get on. It took us two days to reach Semabang, and we hardly saw a bit of dry land all the way. In the latter part of the journey I could touch the bushes on each side for miles ; and we were often delayed by the screw-pines (Pandanus), which grew abundantly in the water, falling across the stream. In other places dense rafts of floating grass completely filled up the channel, making our journey a constant succession of difliculties. Near the landing-place we found a fine house, 250 feet long, raised high above the ground on posts, with a wide verandah and still wider platform of bamboo in front of it. Almost all the X)eople, however, were away on some excureion after edible birds^-nests or bees'-wax, and there only remained in the liouse two or three old men and women with a lot of children. The mountain or hill was close by, covered with a complete forest of frait-trees, among which the Durian and Mangusteen were very abundant ; but tne fruit was not yet quite ripe, except a little here and there. I spent a week at this place, going out every day in various directions about the mountain, accompanied by a Malay, who had stayed with me while the other boatmen returned. For three days we found no Orangs, but shot a deer and several monkeys. On the fourth day, however, we found a Mias feeding on a very lofty Durian tree, and succeeded in killing it, after eight shots. Unfortunately it remained in the tree, hanging by its hands, and we were obliged to leave it and return home, as it was several miles off. As I felt pretty sure it would fall during the night, I returned to the place early the next morning, and found it on the ground beneath the tree. To my astonishment and pleasure, it appeared to be a different kind from anv I had yet seen, for although a f uU-j^rown male by its fylly developed teeth and very large canines, it had no sign of the lateral protuberance on the face, and was alx>ut one-tenth smaller in all its dimensions than the other adult males. The upper incisors, however, appeared to be broader than in the larger species, a character distinguishing the Simla morio of Professor Owen, which he had described from the cranium of a female specimen. As it was too far to carry the animal home, I set to work and skinned the body on the spot, leaving the hecid, hands, and feet attached, to be finished at home. This specimen is now in the British Museum. At the end of a week, finding no more Orangs, I returned home ; and, taking in a few fresh stores, and this time accom- panied by Charles, went up another branch of the river, very similar in character, to a place called Menyille, where there were several small Dyak houses and one large one. Here the landing-place was a bridge of rickety poles, over a considerable distance of water ; and I thought it safer to leave my cask of arrack securely placed in the fork of a tree. To prevent the 42 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. natives from drinking it, I let several of them see me put in a number of snakes and lizards ; but I rather think this did not prevent them from tasting it. We were accommodated here in the verandah of the large house, in which were several great baskets of dried human heads, the trophies of past generations of head-hunters. Here also there was a little mountain covered with fruit-trees, and there were some magnificent Durian trees close bv the house, the fruit of wliich was ripe ; and as the Dyaks looked upon me as a benefactor in killing the Mias which destroys a great deal of their fruit, they let us eat as much as we liked, and we revelled in this emperor of fruits in its greatest perfection. The very day after my arrival in this place, I was so fortunate as to shoot another adult male of the small Orang, the Mias- kassir of the Dyaks. It fell when dead, but caug^ht in a fork of the tree and remained fixed. As I was very anxious to get it, I tried to persuade two young Dyaks who were with me to cut down the tree, which was tall, perfectly straight and smooth- barked, and without a branch tor fifty or sixty feet. To my surprise, they said they would prefer climbing up it, but it would be a good deal of trouble, and, after a little talking to- gether, they said thev would try. They first went to a clump of baml)oo that stoocl near, and cut down one of the largest stems. From this they chopped off a short piece, and splitting it, made a couple of stout pegs, about a foot long, and snarp at one end. Then cutting a thick piece of wood for a mallet, they drove one of the pegs into the tree and hung their weight upon it. It held, and this seemed to satisfy them, for they imme- diately beg^n making a quantity of pegs of the same kind, while I looked on with great interest, wondering how they could possibly ascend such a lofty tree by merely driving pegs in it, the failure of any one of which at a good height would certainly cause their death. When about two dozen pegs were made, one of them began cutting some very long and slender bamboo from another clump, and also prepared some cord from the bark of a small tree. They now drove in a jpeg very firmly at about three feet from the ground, and bringing one of the long bamboos, stood it upright close to the tree, and bound it firmly to the two first pegs, by means of the bark cord, and small notches near the head of each peg. One of the Dyaks now stood on the first peg and drove in a third, about level with his face, to which he tied the bamboo in the same way, and then mounted another step, standing on one foot, and holding by the bamboo at the peg immediately above him, while he drove in the next one. In this manner he ascended about twenty feet, when the upright bamboo becoming thin, another was handed up by his companion, and this was joined on by tying both bamboos to three or four of the pegs. When this was also nearly ended, a third was added, and shortly after, the lowest branches of the tree were reached, along which the young Dyak scrambled, and soon sent rv.] BORNEO— THE ORANG-UTAN. 43 the Mias tumbling headlong down. I was exceedingly struck by the ingenuity of this mode of climbing, and the aoimirable manner in which the peculiar properties of the. bamboo were made available. The ladder itself was perfectly safe, since if any one peg were loose or faulty, and gave way, the strain would be thrown on several others above and below it. I now under- stood the use of the line of bamboo pegs sticking in trees, which I had often seen, and wondered for what purpose they could have been put there. Tliis animal was almost identical in size and appearance with the one I had obtained at Semdbang, and was the only other male specimen of the Simia morio which I obtained. It is now in the Derbpr Museum. I afterwards shot two adult females and two young ones of different ages, all of which I preserved. One of the females, with several young ones, was feeding on a Durian tree with un- ripe fruit; and as soon as she saw us she began breaking off branches and the great spiny fruits with every appearance of rag^, causing such a shower of missiles as effectually kept us from approaching too near the tree. Tins habit of throwing down branches when irritated has been doubted, but I have, as here narrated, observed it myself on at least three separate occasions. It was however always the female Mias who behaved in this way, and it may be that the male, trusting more to his great strength and his powerful canine teeth, is not afi^aid of any other animal, and does not want to drive them away, while the parental instinct of the female leads her to adopt this mode of defending herself and her young ones. In preparing the skins and skeletons of these animals, I was much troubled by the Dyak dogs, which, being always kept in a state of semi starvation, are ravenous for animal food. I had a great iron pan, in which I boiled the bones to make skeletons, and at night I covered this over with boards, and put heavy stones upon it ; but the dogs managed to remove these and carried away the greater part of one of my specimens. On another occasion they gnawed away a good deal of the upper leather of mv strong boots, and even ate a piece of my mosquito-curtain, i^rhere some lamp-oil had been sput over it some weeks before. On our return down the stream, we had the fortune to fall in -with a very old male Mias, feeding on some low trees growing in the water. The country was flooded for a long distance, but so full of trees and stumps that t)ie laden boat could not be got in among them, and if it could have been we should only have frightened the Mias away. I therefore got into the water, which was nearly up to my waist, and waded on till I was near enough for a shot. The difficulty then was to load my gun again, for I was so deep in the water that I could not hold the gun sloping enough to pour the powder in. I therefore had to search tor a shallow place, and after several shots under these trying circum- stances, I was delighted %b s6e the monstrous animal roll over into the water. I now towed him after me to the stream, but the 44 THE MALAY AECHIPELAGO. [chap. Malays objected to have the animal put into the boat^ and he was so heavy that I could not do it without their help. I looked about for a place to skin him, but not a bit of dry g^und was to be seen, till at last I found a clump of two or three old trees and stumps, between which a few feet of soil had collected just above the water, and whicli was just large enouffh for us to drag the animal upon it. I first measured him, and found him to be by far the largest I had vet seen, for, though the standing height was the same as the others (4 feet 2 inches), yet the outstretched anns ware 7 feet 9 inches, which was six inches more than the previous one, and the immense broad face was 1.3^ inches wide, whereas the widest I had hitherto seen was only 11 ][ inches. The girth of the body was 3 feet 7^ inches. I am inclined to believe, therefore, that the length and strength of the arms, and the width of the face, continues increasing to a very great age, while the standing height, from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, rarely if ever exceeds 4 feet 2 inches. As this was the last Mias I shot, and the last time I saw an adult living animal, I will give a sketch of its general habits, and any other facts connected with it. The Orang-utan is known to inhabit Sumatra and Borneo, and there is every reason to believe that it is confined to these two great islands, in the former of which, however, it seems to be much more rare. In Borneo it has a wide range, inhabiting many districts on the south-west, south-east, nortli-east, and north-west coasts, but appears to be chiefly confined to the low and swampy forests. It seems at first sight very inexplicable that the Mias should be quite unknown in the Sarawak valley, while it is abundant in Sambas, on the west, and S^ong, on the east. But when we know the habits and mode of life of the animal, we see a sufficient reason for this apparent anomaly in the physical features of the Sardwak district. In the SAdong, where I observed it, the Mias is only found where the country is low, level, and swampy, and at the same time covered with a lofty virgin forest. From these swamps rise manv isolated mountains, on some of whicli the Dyaks have settled, and covered with plantations of fruit trees. These area great attraction to the Mias, whicli comes to feed on the unripe fruits, but always retires to the swamp at ni^ht. Where the country becomes slightly elevated, and tne soil dry, the Mias is no longer to be found. For example, in all the lower part of the SAdong valley it abounds, but as soon as we ascend above the limits of the tides where the country, though still flat, is high enough to be dry, it disappears. Now the Sardwak valley has this i>eculiarity — the lower portion though swampy is not covered with continuous lofty fore-st, but is principally occupied by the Nipa palm ; and near the town of Sardwak where the country becomes dry, it is greatly undulated in many parts, and coverecl with small patches of virgin forest, and mucn second- growth jungle on ground which has once been cultivated by the Malays or Dyaks, IV.] BORNEO— THE ORANG-UTAN. 46 Now it seems to me probable, that a wide extent of unbroken and equally lofty virgin forest is necessary to the comfortable existence of these animals. Such forests form their open country, where they can roam in every direction with as mucli facility as the Indian on the prairie, or the Arab on the desert ; passine from tree-top to tree-top without ever being obliged to aescend upon the earth. The elevated and the drier districts are more frequented by man, more cut up by clearings and low second- growth jungle not adapted to its peculiar mode of progression, and where it would therefore be more exposed to aanger, and more frequently obliged to descend upon the earth. There is probably also a greater variety of fruit in the Mias district, the small mountains which i*ise like islands out of it serving as a sort of gardens or plantations, where the trees of the uplands are to be lound in the very midst of the swampy plains. It is a singular and very interesting sight to watch a Mias making his way leisurely througii the forest. He walks de- liberately along some of the larger branches, in the semi-erect attitude which the great length of his arms and the shortness of liis legs cause him naturally to assume ; and the disproportion between these limbs is increased by his walking on his knuckles, not on the palm of the hand, as we should do. He seems always to choose tnose branches which intermingle with an adjoining tree, on approaching which he stretches out his long arms, and, seizing the opposing boughs, grasps them together with both hands, seems to try their strength, and then deliberately swings himself across to the next branch, on which he walks along as Ijefore. He never jumps or spnngs, or even appears to hurry himself, and yet manages to get along almost as quickly as a person can run through the forest beneath. The long and powerful amis are of the greatest use to the animal, enabling it te climb easily up the loftiest trees, te seize fruits and young leaves from slenoer boughs which will not bear its weight, ana to gather leaves and branches with which to form its nest. I have already described how it forms a nest when wounded, but it uses a similar one to sleep on almost eveiy night. This is placed low down, however, on a small tree not more than from twenty to fifty feet from the ground. prol)ably because it is warmer and less exposed to wind than higher up. Each Mias is said to make a f resn one for himself every night : but I should think that is hardly probable, or their remains would be much more abundant ; for though I saw several about the coal-mines, there must have been many Orangs about every day, and in a year their deserted nests would become very numerous. The Dyaks say that, when it is very wet, the Mias covers himself over with leaves of pandanus, or lar^e ferns, which has perhaps led to the story of his making a hut in the trees. The Orang does not leave ii is bed till the sun has well risen and has dried up the dew upon the leaves. He feeds all through the middle of tlie day, but seldom returns to the same tree two 46 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. days running. They do not seem much alarmed at man, as they often stared down upon me for several minutes, and tlien only moved away slowly to an adjacent tree. After seeing one, I have often had to go half a mile or more to fetch my gun, and in nearly every case have foui\d it on the same tree, or within a hundred yards, when I returned. I never saw two full-grown animals together, but both males and females are sometimes accompanied by naif-grown young ones, while, at other times, three or four young ones were seen in company. Their food consists almost exclusively of fruit, with occasionally leaves, buds, and young shoots. They seem to prefer unripe fruits, some of wnich were very sour, others intenseljr bitter, par- ticularly the large red, rfeshy arillus of one which seemed an especial favourite. In other cases tliey eat only the small seed of a large fruit, and they almost always waste and destroy more than they ent, so that there is a continual rain of rejected portions below the tree they are feeding on. The Durian is an especial favourite, and quantities of this delicious fruit are destroyed wherever it grows surrounded by forest, but tliey will not cross clearings to get at them. It seems wonderful how the animal can tear open this fruit, the outer covering of which is so thick and tough, and closely covered with strong conical spines. It probably bites off a few of these first, and then, making a small hole, tears open the fruit with its powerful fingers. The Mias rarely descends to the ground, except when pressed by hunger it seeks for succulent shoots by the river side ; or, in verv dry weather, has to search after water, of which it generally finds sufficient in the hollows of leaves. Once only I saw two half-grown Orangs on the ground in a dry hollow at the foot of the Simunjon hill. They were playing together, standing erect, and grasping each other by the arms. It may be safely stated, however, that the Orang never walks erect, unless when using its hands to support itself by branches overhead or when attacked. Representations of its walking with a stick are entirely imaginarv. The Dyaks all cfeclare that the Mias is never attacked by any animal in tlie forest, with two rare exceptions ; and the accounts I received of these are so curious that I give them nearly in the words of my informants, old Dyak chiefs, who had lived all their lives in the places where the animal is most abundant. The first of whom I inquired said : " No animal is strong enough to hurt the Mias, and the only creature he ever fights with is the crocodile. When there is no fruit in the iungle, he goes to seek food on the banks of the river, where there are plenty of young shoots that he likes, and fruits that grow close to the water. Then tiie crocodile sometimes tries to seize him, but the Mias gets upon him, and beats him with his hands and feet, and tears him and kills him." He added that he had once seen sucli a fight, and that he believes that the Mias is always the victor. IV.] BORNEO— THE ORANG-UTAN. 47 Mv next informant was the Orang Kaya, or chief of the Balow Dyaks, on the Simun jon River. He said : *^ The Mias has no enemies ; no animals dare attack it but the crocodile and the python. He alwa^ys kills the crocodile by main strength, stand- ing upon it, pulling open its laws, and ripping up its throat. If a python attacks a Mias, he seizes it with his hands, and then bites it, and soon kills it. The Mias is vei*y strong ; there is no animal in the jungle so strong as he." It is very remarkable that an animal so large, so peculiar, and of such a hi^h type of form as the Orang-utan, should be con- fined to so limited a district — to two islands, and those almost the last inhabited by the higher Mammalia ; for, eastward of Borneo and Java, the Quadru mania, Ruminants, Camivora, and many other groups of Mammalia, diminish rapidly, and soon entirely disappear. When we consider, further, that almost all other animals have in earlier ages been represented by allied yet distinct forms — that, in the latter part of the tertiary period, Europe was inhabited by bears, deer, wolves, and cats ; Australia by kangaroos and other Marsupials ; South America by gigantic sloths and ant-eaters ; all dinerent from any now existing, though intimately alliea to them — we have every reason to believe that the Orang-utan, the Chimpanzee, and the Gorilla have also had their forerunners. With what interest must every naturalist look forward to the time when the caves and tertiaiy deposits of the tropics may be thoroughly examined, and the past history and earliest appearance of the great man- like apes be at length made known. I will now say a few words as to the supposed existence of a Bomean Orang as large as the Gonlla. I have myself examined the bodies of seventeen freshly-killed Orangs, all of which were carefully measui'ed ; and of seven of them I preserved the skeleton. I also obtained two skeletons killed by other persons. Of this extensive series, sixteen were fully adult, nine being males, and seven females. The adult males of the lar^e Orangs only varied from 4 feet 1- inch to 4 feet 2 inches in height, measured fairly to the heel, so as to give the height of the animal if it stood perfectly erect ; the extent of the outstretched ai*ms, from 7 feet 2 inches to 7 feet 8 inches ; and the width of the face, from 10 inches to 13 J incites. The dimensions given by other naturalists closely agree with mine. The largest Orang measured by Temminck was 4 feet high. Of twenty-five specimens collected by Schlegel and Miiller, the largest old male was 4 feet'l inch ; and the largest skeleton in the Calcutta Museum was, according to Mr. Blyth, 4 feet li inch. My speci- mens were all from tne north-west coast of Borneo ; those of the Dutch from the west and south coasts ; and no specimen has yet reached Europe exceeding these dimensions, although the total number of skins and skeletons must amount to over a hundred. Strange to say, however, several persons declare that they 48 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. liave measured Orangs of a much larger size. Temminck, in his Monog^ph of the Orang, says, that lie l»as just received news of the capture of a specimen 5 feet 3 inches high. Unfortunately, it never seems to have reached Holland, for nothing has since been heard of any such animal. Mr. St. John, in his Life in the Forests of the Far EnH^ vol. ii. p. 237, tells us of an Orang sliot by a friend of his, which was 5 feet 2 inches from the heel to the top of the head, the arm 17 inches in girtli, and the wrist 12 inches ! The head alone was brought to Sarawak, and Mr. St. John tells us that ]ie assisted to measure this, and that it was 15 inches broad by 14 long. Unfortunately, even this skull appears not to have l)een preserved, for no specimen corresponding to these dimensions has yet re^iched England. In a letter from Sir James Brooke, dated October, 1857, in which lie acknowledges the receipt of my Papers on the Orang, published in ihe Annals aiul Magazhie of Natural Hlstorf/^ he sends me the measurements of a specimen killed by his nephew, which I will give exactly as I received it : "Septeml>er 3rd, 1867, killed female Orang-utan. Height, from head to heel, 4 feet 6 inches. Stretch from fingers to fincrers across body, 6 feet 1 inch. Breadth of face, including callosities, 11 inches." Now, in these dimensions, there is palpably one error ; for in every Orang yet measured by any naturalist, an expanse of arms of 6 feet 1 inch corresponds to a height of about 3 feet 6 inches, while the largest specimens of 4 feet to 4 feet 2 inches high, always have the ex- tended arms as much as 7 feet 3 inches to 7 feet 8 inches. It is, in fact, one of the characters of the genus to have the arms so long that an animal standing nearly erect can rest its fingers on the ground. A height of 4 feet 6 inches would therefore require a stretch of arms of at least 8 feet ! If it were only 6 feet to that height, as given in the dimensions quoted, the animal would not be an Orang at all, but a new genus of apes, differing materially in habits and mode of progression. But Mr. Johnson, wh© shot this animal, and who knows Orangs well, evidently considered it to be one ; and we have therefore to judge whether it is more probable that ho made a mistake of two feet in the stretch of the arms, or of one foot in the height. The latter error is certainly the easiest to make, and it will bring his animal into agreement as to proportions and size, with all those which exist in Europe. How easy it is to l>e deceived in the height of these animals is well shown in the case of the Sumatran Orang, the skin of which was described by Dr. Clarke Abel. The captain and crew who killed this animal declared, that when alive he exceeded the tallest man, and looked so gigantic that they thought he was 7 feet high ; but that, when he was killed and Jay upon the ground, they found he was only about 6 feet. Now it will hardly be credited that the skin of this identical animal exists in the Calcutta Museum, and Mr. Blyth, the late cunttor, states " that it is by no means oue of the largest size ; " which means that it is about 4 feet high ! v.] BORNEO— JOURNEY IN THE INTERIOR. 49 Having these undoubted examples of error in the dimensions of Orangs, it is not too much to conclude that Mr. St. John's hiend made a similar error of measurement, or rather, perhaps, of memory ; for we are not told that the dimensions were noted down at the time they were made. The only figures given by Mr. St. John on his own authority are that '* the head was 15 inches broad by 14 inches long." As my largest male was 131 broad across the face, measured as soon as the animal was killed, I can quite understand that when the head arrived at Sarawak from the Batang Lupar, after two if not three days' voyage, it was so swollen by decomposition as to measure an inch more than when it was fresh. On the wliole, therefore, I think it will be allowed, that up to this time we have not the least reliable evidence of the existence of Orangs in Borneo more than 4 feet 2 inches iiigh. CHAPTER V. BORNEO— JOUKNEY IN THE INTEUIOR, (NOVEMBER 1855 TO JANUARY 1856.) As the wet season was approaching I determined to return to Sardwak, sending all my collections with Charles Allen round by sea, while I myself proposed to go up to the sources of the Sftdong River, and descend by the Sardwak valley. As the route was somewhat difficult, 1 took the smallest quantity of baggage, and only one servant, a Malay lad named Bujon, who knew the language of the Sddong Dyaks. with whom he had traded. We left the mines on the 27th or November, and the next day reached the Malay village of Gudong. wliere I stayed a short time to buy fruit and eggs, and callea upon the Datu Bandar, or Malay governor of the place. He lived in a large and well-built house, very dirty outside and in, and was very inc^uisitive about my business, and particularly about the coal mines. These puzzle the natives exceedingly, as they cannot understand the extensive and costly preparations for working coal, and cannot believe it is to be used only as fuel when wood is so abundant and so easily obtained. It was evident that Europeans seldom came here, for numbers of women skeltered away as I walked through the village ; and one girl about ten or twelve years old, who had lust brought a bamboo full of water from the river, threw it aown with a cry of horror and alarm the moment she caught sight of me, turned round and jumped into the stream. She swam beautifully, and kept lookmg back as if expecting I would follow her. screaming violenUy all the time ; while a number of men ana boys were laughing at her ignorant terror. At Jahi, the next village, the stream became so swift in con- E 60 THE MALAY ABCHIPELAGO. [chaf. seqaence of a flood, that my heavy boat could make no wayi uid I vas obliged to send it bock and go on in a very sm^l open one. So far the river liad been very monotonous, the banks being cultivnted as rice-fields, and little thatched huts alone breaking the unpicturesque line of muddy bank crowned with tall grasses, and backed by the top of the forest behind the cultivated ground, A few hours beyond Jahi we passed the limits of cultivation, and had the beautiful virgin forest coming down to the water's edge, with its palms and creepers, its noble trees, its ferns, and lytes. Th^ Ikanks ff _ _.. Btill generally flooded, and we had some difficulty in find- ing a dry spot to sleep on. Earlyinthemom- ing we reached Empug- nan, a suiall Malay vil- lage situated at the foot of an isolated mountain which had been visible from the mouth of the Siniunjon River. Be- yond here the tides are not felt and we now entered upon a district of elevated forest, with a liner vegetation. Large trees stretch out their arms across the stream, and the st«ep, earthy banks are cloth- ed with ferns and Zin- gilieraceous plants. Early in the after- noon we arriied at Tabrikan, the first vil- roBTurr or dt*k todtm. lage of the Hill Dyaks. On an Open space near the river about twenty boys were playing at a game something like what we call "prisoner's base" : their ornaments of beads and brass wire and their gay-coloured kerchiefs and waist -cloths showing to much advantage, and forming a very pleasing siglit. On being called by Bujon, they immediately left their game to carry my things up to the " head- ho use,"— a circular building attached to most Dyak villages, and serving as a lodging for strangers, the place for trade, the sleep ing-room of the un- married youths, and the general council-ohomuer. It iselevated on lofty posts, has a large fireplace in the middle and windows v.] BORNEO— JOURNEY IN THE INTERIOR. 51 in the roof all round, and forms a very pleasant and comfortable abode. In the evening it was crowded with yonng men and boys, who came to look at me. They were mostly fine young fellows, and I could not help admiring the simplicity and ele- gance of their costume. Their only dress is the long " chawat,** or waist-cloth, which hangs down before and behind. It is peneiully of blue cotton, ending in three broad bands of red, blue, and whita Those who can afford it wear a handkerchief on the head, which is either red, with a narrow border of gold lace, or of three colonics, like the "chawat.'' The large fiat moon-shaped brass earrings, the heavy necklace of white or black beads, rows of brass rings on the arms and legs, and arm- lets of white shell, all serve to relieve and set off the pure reddish brown skin and iet-black hair. Add to this the uttle pouch containing materials for betel-chewing and a long slender Knife, both invariably worn at tlie side, and you have the every- day dress of tlie young Dyak gentleman. The " Orang Kaya, or rich man, as the chief of the tribe is called, now came m with several of the older men ; and the '' bit-chdra " or talk commenced, about getting a boat and men to take me on the next morning. As I could not understand a word of their language, which is very different from Malay, I took no part in the proceedings, but was represented by my boy Bujon,who translated to me most of what was said. A Chinese trader was in the house, and he, too, wanted men the next day ; but on his hinting this to the Orang Kaya, he was sternly told that a white man's business was now being discussed, and he must wait another day before his could be thought about. Alter the " bitch^ra" was over and the old chiefs gone, I asked the young men to play or dance, or amuse themselves in their accustomed way ; and after some little hesitation they agreed to do so. They first had a trial of strength, two boys sitting opposite each other, foot being placed against foot, and a stout stick grasped by both their hands. Each then tried to throw himself back, so as to raise his adversary up from the ground, either by main strength or by a sudden effort. Then one of the men would try his strength against two or three of the boys ; and afterwards they each grasped their own ankle with a hand, and while one stood as firm as he could, the other swung himself round on one leg, so as to strike the other's free leg, and try to overthrow him. When these games had been played all round with varying success, we had a novel kind oi concei*t. Some placed a leg across the knee, and struck the finders sharply on the ankle, others beat their arms a^inst their sides like a cock when he is going to crow, thus making a great variety of dap- ping sounds, while another with his hand under his armpit produced a deep trumpet note ; and, as they all kept time very well, the effect was by no means unpleasing. This seemed quite a favourite amusement with them, and they kept it up with much spirit. £ 2 52 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [ohap. The next morning we started in a boat about thirty feet long, and only twenty-eight inches wide. The stream here suddenly changes its character. Hitherto, though swift, it had been deep and smootii, and confined by steep banks. Now it rushed and Tippled over a pebbly, sandy, or rocky bed, occasionally forming miniature cascades and rapids, and throwing up on one side or the other broad banks of finely coloured pebbles. No paddling could make way here, but the Dyaks with bamboo poles pro- pelled us along witli great dexterity and swiftness, never losing their balance in such a narrow and unsteady vessel, though standing up and exerting all their force. It was a brilliant day, and the cheerful exertions of the men, the rushing of the sparkling waters, with the bright and varied foliage which from either bank .stretched over our heads, produced an exhilarating sensation which recalled my canoe voyages on the grander waters of South America. Early in the afternoon we reached the village of Borotdi, and, though it would have been easy to reach the next one before night, I was obliged to stay, as my men wanted to return and others could not possibly go on with me without the preliminary talking. Besides, a white man was too great a rarity to be allowed to escape them, and their wives would never have forgiven them if, when they returned from the fields, they found that such a curiosity had not been kept for them to see. On entering the house to which I was invited, a crowd of sixty or seventy men, women, and children gathered round me, and I sat for half an hour like some strange animal submitted for the first time to the gaze of an inquiring public. Brass rings were here in the greatest profusion, many of the women having their arms completely covered with them, as well as their legs from the ankle to the knee. Round the waist they wear a dozen or more coils of fine rattan stained red, to which the petticoat is attached. Below this are generally a number of coils of brass wire, a girdle of small silver coins, and sometimes a broad belt of brass ring armour. On their heads they wear a conical hat without a crown, formed of variously coloured beads, kept in shape by rings of rattan, and forming a fantastic but not un- picturesque head-dress. ^ Walking out to a small hill near the vilLage, cultivated as a rice-field, I had a fine view of the country, wliich was becoming c]uite hilly, and towards the south, mountainous. I took bear- ings and sketches of all that was visible, an operation which caused much astonishment to the Dyaks who accompanied me, and produced a request to exliibit the compass when I returned. I was then surrounded by a larger crowd tnan before, and when I took my evening meal in tlie midst of a circle of about a hundred spect^itors anxiously observing every movement and criticising every mouthful, my thouglits involuntarily recurred to the lions at feeding time. Like those noble animals, I too was used to it, and it did not afiect my appetite. The children v.] BORNEO—JOURNEY IN THE INTERIOR. 53 here were more shy than at Tabokan, and I could not persuade them to play. I therefore turned showman myself, and exhibited the shadow of a dog's head eating, wliieh ple;ised them so much tiiat all the village in succession came out to see it. The "rabbit on the wall" does not do in Borneo, as there is no animal it resembles. The boys had tops shaped something like whipping-tops, but spun witli a string. The next morning we proceeded as before, but the river liad become so rapid and sliallow, and the boats were all so small, that though I had notliing with me but a change of clothes, a gun, and a few cooking utensils, two were required to take me on. The rock which appeai*ed here and there on the river-bank was an indurated clay-slate, sometimes crystalline, and thrown up almost vertically. Right and left of us rose isolated limestone mountains, their white precipices glistening in the sun and con- trasting beautifully with the luxuriant vegetation that elsewhere clothed them. The river bed was a mass of pebbles, mostly pure white quartz, but with abundance of jaspar and agate, presenting a beautifully variegated appearance. It was only ten in the morning when we arrived at Budw, and, though there were plenty of people about, I could not induce them to allow me to go on to the next village. The Orang Kaya said that if I insisted on having men of course he would get them ; but when I took him at his word and said I must have them, there came a fresh re- monstrance ; and the idea of my going on that day seemed so painful that I was obliged to submit. I therefore walked out over the rice-fields, which are here very extensive, covering a number of the little hills and valleys into whicn the whole country seems broken up, and obtained a fine view of hills and mountains in every direction. In the evening the Orang Kaya came in full dress (a spangled velvet jacket, but no trousers), and invited me over to his house, where he gave me a seat of honour under a canopy of white calico and coloured handkerchiefs. The great verandah was crowded with people, and large plates of rice with cooked and fresh eggs were placed on the ground as presents for me. A very old man then dressed himself in bright-coloured cloths and many orna- ments, and sitting at the door, murmured a long prayer or invocation, sprinkling rice from a basin he held in nis hand, while several large gongs were loudly beaten and a salute of muskets fired off. A large jar of rice wine, very sour but with an agreeable flavour, was then handed round, and I asked to see some of their dances. These were, like most savage performances, very dull and ungraceful affairs ; the men dressing themselves absurdly like women, and the girls making themselves as stiff and ridiculous as possible. All the time six or eight large Chinese gongs were being beaten bv the vigorous arms of as many young men, producing such a deafening discord that I was glad to escape to the round house, where I slept very comfortable with half^a dozen smoke-dried human skulls suspended over mv head. 54 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. The river was now so shallow that boats could hardly get alon^. I therefore preferred walking to the next village, ex- pecting to see something of the country, but was much dis- appointed, as the path lay almost entirely through dense bamboo thickets. The Dyaks set two crops off the ground in succession ; one of rice and the other of su^ar-cane, maize, and vegetables. The ground then lies fallow eight or ten years, and becomes covered with bamlioos and shrubs, which often completely arch over the path and shut out everything from the view. Three hours' walking brought us to the village of Sendnkan, where I was again obliged to remain the whole day, wiiich I agreed to do on the promise of the Orang Kaya that his men should next day take me through two otiier villages across to S^nna, at the head of the Sardwak River. I amused myself as I best could till evening, by walking about the high ground near, to get views of the country and liearings of the chief mountains. There was then another public audience, with gift-s of rice and eggs, and drinking of rice wine. These Dyaks cultivate a great extent of ground, and supply a good deal of rice to Sarawak. They ai*e rich in gongs, brass trays, wire, silver coins, and other articles in which a Dyak's wealth consists ; and their women and children are highly ornamented with bead necklaces, shells, and brass wire. In the morning I waited some time, but the men that were to accompany me did not make their appearance. On sending to the Orang Kaya I found tiiat both he and another head-man had gone out for the day, and on inquiring the reason was told that they could not persuade any of their men to go with me because the journey was a long and fatiguing one. As I was determined to get on, I told the few men that remained that the chiefs had behaved very badly, and that I should acquaint the Rajah with their conduct, and I wanted to start immediately. Every man present made some excuse, but others were sent for, and by dint of threats and promises, and the exertion of all Bujon's eloquence, we succeeded in getting off after two hours* delay. lor the first few miles our path lay over a country cleared for rice-fields, consisting entirely of small but deep and sharply-cut ridges and valleys, without a yard of level ground. After crossing the Kayan River, a main branch of the Bddong, we got on to the lower slopes of the Seboran Mountain, and the path lay along a sharp and moderately steep ridge, atFording an ex- cellent view of the country. Its features were exactly those of the Himalayas in miniature, as they are described by Dr. Hooker and other travellers ; and looked like a natural model of some parts of those vast mountains on a scale of about a tenth, thousands of feet being here represented by hundreds. I now discovered the source of the beautiful pebbles which had so pleased me in the river-bed. The slaty rocks had ceased, and these mountains seemed to consist of a sand -stone conglomerate, which was in some places a mere mass of pebbles cemented v.] BORNEO— JOURNEY IN THE INTERIOR. 65 together. I might have known that such small streams could not t>roducesuch vast quantities of well-rounded pebbles of the very lardest materials. They had evidently been formed in past ages, by the action of some continental stream or seabeach, before the great island of Borneo had risen from the ocean. The existence of such a system of hills and valleys reproducing in miniature all the features of a great mountain region, has an important bearing on the modern theory, that the form oi the ground is mainly due to atmospheric rather than to subterranean action. When we have a number of branching valleys and ravines running in many different directions within a square niile^ it seems hardly possible to impute their formation, or even their origination, to rents and fissures produced by earthquakes. On the other hand, the nature of the rock, so easily decomposed and removed by water, and the known action of the abundant tropical rains, are in this case, at least, quite sufficient causes for the production of such valleys. But the resemblance between their forms and out- lines, their mode of divergence, and the slopes and ridges that diviae them, and those of the grand mountain scenery of the Himalayas, is so remarkable, that we are forcibly led to the con- clusion that the forces at work in the two cases have been the same, differing only in the time they have been in action, and the nature of the material they have had to work upon. About noon we reached the village of Menyerry, beautifully situated on a spur of the mountain about 600 feet above the valley, and affording a delightful view of the mountains of this part of Borneo. I here got a sight of Penrissen Mountain at the head of the Bardwak River, and one of the highest in the district, rising to about 6,000 feet above the sea. To the south the Rowan, and further off the Unto wan Mountains in the Dutch territory, appeared eaually lofty. Descending from Menyerry we again crossed the Kayan, which bends round the spur, and ascend^ to the pass which divides the S^ong and Sardwak valleys, and which is about 2,000 feet hi^h. The descent from this point was very fine. A stream, deep m a rocky gorge, rushed on each side of us, to one of which we gradually descended, passing over many lateral guUeys and along the faces of some precipices bv means of native bamboo bridges. Some of these were several hundred feet long and fifty or sixty high, a single smooth bamboo four inches in diameter forming the only pathway, while a slender handrail of the same material was often so shaky that it could only be used as a guide rather than a support. Late in the afternoon we reached Sodos, situated on a spur between two streams, but so surrounded by fruit trees that little could be seen of the country. The house was spacious, clean, and comfortable, and the people very obliging. Many of the women and children had never seen a white man before, and were very sceptical as to my being the same colour all over, as my face. They begged me to show them my arms and body, and they were so Kind and good-tempered that I felt bound to give 66 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. them some satisfaction, so I turned up my trousers and let them see the colour of my leg, which they examined with great interest. In the morning early we continued our descent along a fine valley, with mountains rising 2,000 or 3,000 feet in every direction. The little river rapidly increased in size till we reached S^nna, when it had become a fine pebbly stream navigable for small canoes. Here again the upheaved slaty rock appeared, with the same dip and direction as m the Sddong River. On inquiring for a boat to take me down the stream, 1 was told that the Senna Dyaks, although living on the river- banks, never made or used boats. They were mountaineers who had onlv come down into the valley about twenty years before, and had not yet Rot into new habits. They are of the same tribe as the people of Aienyerry and Sodos. They make good paths and bridges, and cultivate much mountain land, and thus give a more pleasing and civilized aspect to the country than where the people move about only in boats, and confine their cultivation to the banks of the streams. After some trouble I hired a boat from a Malay trader, and found three Dyaks who had been several times with Malays to Sardwak, and thought they could manage it very well. They turned out very awkward, constantly running aground, striking against rocks, and losing their balance so as almost to upset themselves and the boat ; offering a striking contrast to the skni of the Sea Dyaks. At length we came to a really dangerous rapid where boats were often swamped, and my men were afraid to pass it. Some Malays with a boat-load of rice here overtook us, and after safely passing down kindly sent back one of their men to assist me. As it was, my Dyaks lost their balance in the critical part of the passage, and had they been alone would certainly have upset the boat. The river now became exceed- ingly picturesque, the ground on each side being partially cleared for rice-fields, anbrding a ^ood view of the country. Numerous little granaries were built high up in trees over- hanging the river, and having a bamboo bridge sloping up to them from the bank ; and here and there bamboo suspension bridges crossed the stream, where overhanging trees favoured their construction. I slept that night in the village of the Sebungow Dyaks, and the next day reached Sarawak, passing through a most beautiful country, where limestone mountains with their fantastic forms and white precipices shot up on every side, draped and festooned with a luxuriant vegetation. The banks of the Sarawak River are everywhere covered with fruit trees, which supply the Dyaks with a great deal of their food. The Mangosteen, Lansat, Kam- butan. Jack, Jambou, and Blimbing, are all abundant ; but most abundant and most esteemed is the Durian, a fruit about which very little is known in England, but which both by natives and Europeans in the Malay Archipelago is reckoned superior to all v.] BORNEO— JOURNEY IN THE INTERIOR. 57 others. Tlie old traveller Linschott, writing in 1599, says : — *' It is of such an excellent taste that it surpasses in flavour all the other fruits of the world, according to those who have tasted it." And Doctor Paludanus adds : — "This fruit is of a hot and humid nature. To those not used to it, it seems at first to smell like rotten onions, but immediately they have tasted it they prefer it to all other food. The natives give it honourable titles, exalt it, and make verses on it." When brought into a house the smell is often so offensive that some persons can never l)ear to taste it. This was my own case when I first tried it in Malacca, but in Borneo I found a ripe fruit on the ground, and, eating it out of doors, I at once became a confirmed Durian eater. The Durian grows on a large and lofty forest tree, somewliat resembling an elm in its general character, but with a more smooth and scaly bark. The fruit is round or slightly oval, about the size of a large cocoanut, of a green colour, and covered all over with short stout spines, the Imses of which touch each other, and are consequently somewhat hexagonal, while the points are very strong and sharp. It is so completely armed, that if the stalk is broken off it is a difficult matter to lift one from the ground. The outer rind is so thick and tough, that from whatever height it ma^ fall it is never broken. From the base to the apex five very faint lines may be traced, over which the spines arch a little ; these are tlie sutures of the carpels, and show where the fruit may be divided with a heavy kniie and a strong hand. The five cells are satiny white within, and are each filled with an oval mass of cream-coloured pulp, imbedded in which are two or three seeds about the size oi chestnuts. This pulp is the eatable part, and its consistence and flavour are indescribable. A rich butter-like custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but intermingled with it come wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion- sauce, brown sherry, and other incongruities. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid^ nor sweet, nor juicy, yet one feels the want of none of these qualities, for it is perfect as it is. It produces no nausea or other bad effect, ana the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop. In fact to eat Durians is a new sensation, worth a voyage to the East to experience. When the fruit is ripe it falls of itself, and the only way to eat Durians in perfection is to get them as they fall ; and the smell is then less overpowering. When unripe, it makes a very good vegetable if cooked, and it is also eaten by the Dyaks raw. In a good fruit season large quantities are preserved salted, in jars and bamboos, and kept the year round, when it acquires a most disgusting odour to Europeans, but the Dyaks appreciate it highly as a relish with their rice. There are in the forest two varieties of wild Durians with much smaller fruits, one of them orange-coloured inside ; and these are probably the origin of 58 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. the large and fine Durians, which are never found wild. It would not, perhaps, be correct to say tliat the Durian is the best of all iruits, because it c^mnot supply the place of the subacid juicy kinds, such as the orange, grape, mango, and man- gostcen, whose ref feshing and cooling qualities are so wholesome and grateful ; but as producing a food of the most exquisite flavour it is unsurpassed. If I had to ^x on two only, as repre- senting the perfection of the two classes, I should certainly choose the Durian and the Orange as the king and queen of fruits. The Durian is, however, sometimes dangerous. When the fruit begins to ripen it falls daily and almost hourly, and acci- dent-s not unfrequently happen to persons walking or working under the trees. When a Durian strikes a man in its fall, it Produces a dreadful wound, the strong spines tearing o]>en the esh, while the blow itself is very heavy ; but from this very circumstance death rarely ensues, the copious effusion of blood preventing the inflammation which might otherwise tafce place. A Dj$rak chief informed me that he had been struck down by a Dunan falling on his head, which he thought would certainly have caused his death, yet he recovered in a very short time. Poets and moralists, judging from our English trees and fruits, have thought that small fruits always grew on lofty trees, so that their fall should be harmless to man, while the large ones trailed on the ground. Two of the largest and hea^aest fruits known, however, the Brazil-nut fruit (Bertholletia) and Durian, grow on lofty forest trees, from which they fall as soon as they are ripe, and often wound or kill the native inhabitants. From this we may learn two things : first, not to draw general con- clusions from a very partial view of nature ; and secondly, that trees and fruits, no less than the varied productions of the animal kingdom, do not appear to be organized with exclusive reference to the use and convenience of man. During my many journeys in Borneo, and especially during my various residences among the Dyaks, I first came to ap- preciate the admirable qualities of the Bamboo. In those parts of South America which I had previously visits, these gigantic grasses were comparatively scarce, and where found but little used, their place being taken as to o||e class of uses by the great variety of Palms, and as to another by calabashes and gourds. Almost all tropical countries produce Bamboos, and wherever they are found in abundance the natives apply them to a variety of uses. Their strength, lightness, smoothness, straightness, roundness, and hoUowness, the facilitv and regularity with which they can be split, their many different sizes, the varying length of their joints, the ease with which they can be cut ana wit^ which holes can be made through them, their hardness out- side, their freedom from any pronounced taste or smell, their great abundance, and the rapidity of their growth and increase, are all qualities which render them useful for a hundred different v.] BORNEO— JOURNEY IN THE INTERIOR. 69 purposes, to serve Tvhich other materials would require much more labour and preparation. The Bamboo is one of the most wonderful and most beautiful productions of the tropics, and one of nature's most valuable gifts to uncivilized man. The Dyak houses are all raised on posts, and are often two or three hundred feet long and forty or fifty wide. The floor is always formed of strips split from large Bamboos, so that each may oe nearly flat and about tliree inches wide, and these are firmly tied down with rattan to the joists beneath. When well made, this is a delightful floor to walk upon barefooted, the rounded surfaces of the Bamboo being very smooth and agree- able to the feet, wliile at the same time anording a firm hold. But, what is more important, they form with a mat over them an excellent bed, the elasticity of the Bamboo and its rounded surface being far superior to a more rigid and a flatter floor. Here we at once find a use for Bamooo which cannot be supplied so well by another material without a vast amount of labour, palms and other substitutes requiring much cutting and smoothing, and not being equally^ good when finished. When, however, a flat, close floor is required, excellent boards are made by splitting open large Bamboos on one side onl^, and flattening them out so as to form slabs eighteen inches wide and six feet long, with which some Dyaks floor their houses. These with constant rubbing of the feet and the smoke of years become dark and polished, like walnut or old oak, so that their real material can hardly be recognized. What labour is here saved to a savage whose only tools are an axe and a knife, and who, if he wants 1t)oards, must hew them out of the solid trunk of a tree, and must give days and weeks of labour to obtain a surface as smooth and beautiful as the Bamboo thus treated afibrds him. Again, if a temporary house is wanted, either by the native in his plantation or by the traveller in the forest, nothing is so convenient as the Bamboo, with which a house can be con- structed with a quarter of the laliour and time than if other materials are used. As I have already mentioned, the Hill Dyaks in the interior of Sarawak make paths for Ions distances from village to village and to their cultivated grounds, in the course of which they have to cross many gullies and ravines, and even rivers ; or sometimes, to avoid a long circuit, to carry the path along the face of a precipice. In all these cases the bridges they construct are of Bamboos, and so admirably adapted is the material for this pur- pose, that it seems doubtful whether they ever would have attempted such works if they hsul not possessed it. The Dyak bridge is simple but well designed. It consists merely of stout Bamooos crossing each other at the roadway like the letter X, and rising a few feet above it. At the crossing they are firmly bound together, and to a lar^e Bamboo which lays upon them and forms the only pathway, with a slender and often very shaky one to serve as a handrail. When a river is to be crossed an over- 60 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chip. hanging tree is t-hoseii, from wliich tlie bridge is partly suspended and partly supported by diagonal etrutsfrom the banks, soaa to avoid placing posts in tlie stream itself, which would be liable to be curried away by floods. In carrying a path along the face of a precipice, trees and roots are made u.se of for suspension ; struts arise from suitable notches or crevices in tlie rocka, and if these are not sufficient, immense Bamboos fifty or sixty feet long nre fixed on the banks or on the branch of a tree below. These bridges are traversed daily by men and women carrying heavy loads, bo that any insecurity is soon discovered, and, as the materials are close at hand, immediately repaired. When a jiath goes over very steep ground, and becomes slippery in very wet or very dry weather, the Bamboo is used in another way. Pieces are cut about a yard long, and opposite notches being made at each end, holes are forni^ through wliich pees are drixen, and firm and convenient steps are thus formed with the greatest ease and celerity. It is true that much of this will decay in one or two seasons, but it can be so quickly replaced aa tomakeit moie economical than using a harder and more durable wood. One of the most striking uses to which Bamboo is applied by the Dyaks, is to assist them in climbing lofty trees, by driving in pegs in the way I have ah'eady described at page 42. This methml is constantly used in order to obtain wax, which is one of the most laluable products of the country. The honey-bee of Borneo very generally hangs its combs under the branches of v.] BORNEO— JOURNEY IN THE INTERIOR. 61 the Tappan, a tree which towers above all others in the forest, and whose smooth cylind^cal trunk often rises a hundred feet without a branch. The Dyaks climb these lofty trees at night, building up their Bamboo ladder as they go, ana bringing down ffigantic honeycombs. These furnish them with a delicious feast of honey and young bees, besides the wax, which they sell to traders, and with the proceeds buy the much- coveted brass wire, earrings, and gold-adged handkerchiefs with which they love to decorate themselves. In ascending Durian and other fruit trees which branch at from tliirty to fifty feet from the ground, I have seen them use tlie Bamboo pegs only, without the upright Bamboo which renders them so much more secure. The outer rind of the Bamboo, split and shaved thin, is the strongest material for baskets; nen-coops, bird-cages, and conical fish-traps are very quickly made from a single joint, by splitting off the skin in narrow strips left attached to one end, while rings of the same material or of i^ttan are twisted in at regular distances. Water is brought to the houses by little aqueducts formed of lar^e Bamboos split in half and supported on crossed sticks of various heights so as to give it a regular fall. Thin, long-jointed Bamboos form the Dyaks* only water- vessels, and a dozen of them stand in the comer of every house. They are clean, light, and easily carried, and are in many ways superior to earthen vessels for the same purpose. They also make excellent cooking utensils; vegetables and rice can be boiled in them to perfection, and they are often used when travelling. Salted fruit or fish, sugar, vinegar, and honey are preserved in them instead of in jars or bottles. In a small Bamboo case, prettily carved and ornamented, the Dyak carries his sirih and lime for betel chewing, and his little long-bladed knife has a Bamboo sheath. His favourite pipe is a huge hubble-bubble, which he will construct in a few minutes by inserting a small piece of Bamboo for a bowl obliquely into a large cylinder about six inches from the bottom containing water, through which the smoke passes to a long, slender Bamboo tube. There are many other small matters for which Bamboo is daily used, but enough has now been mentioned to show its value. In other parts of the Archipelago I have myself seen it applied to many new uses, and it is pi*obable that my limited means of observation did not make me acquainted with one-half the ways in which it is serviceable to the Dyaks of Sardwak. While ux)on the subject of plants I may here mention a few of the more striking vegetable productions of Borneo. The wonderful Pitcher-plants, forming the genus Nepenthes of botanists, here reach their greatest development. Every moun- tain-top abounds with them, running along the grouncL or climbing over shrubs and stunted ti*ees ; their elegant pitcners hanging in every direction. Some of these are long and Blender, resembling in form the beautiful Philippine lace-sponge 62 TIIE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. (Euplectella\ which has now become so common ; others are broad and short. Their colours are g^reen, vfirioasly tinted and mottled with red or purple. The finest yet known were obtained on the summit of Kini-balou, in North-west Borneo. One of the broad sort. Nepenthes rajah, will hold two Quarts of water in its pitcher. Another, Nepenthes Edwarasiania^ has a narrow pitcher twenty inches long ; while the plant itself grows to a length of twenty feet. Ferns are abundant, but are not so varied as on the volcanic mountains of Java ; and Tree-ferns are neither so plentiful nor so large as in that island They grow, however, quite down to the level of the sea, and are generally slender and graceful plants from eight to fifteen feet nigh. Without devoting much time to the search I collected fifty species of Ferns in Borneo, and I have no doubt a good botanist would have obtained twice the number. The interesting group of Orchids is very abundant, but, as is generally the case, nine-tenths of the species have small and inconspicuous flowera. Amons the exceptions are the fine Coelogynes, whose large clusters of yellow flowers orna- ment the gloomiest forests, and that most extraordinary plant, Vanda Lowii, which last is particularly abundant near some hot springs at the foot of the Peniniauh Mountain. It grows on the lower branches of trees, ancl its strange pendant flower- spikes often hang down so as almost to re^ch the ground. These are flrenerally six or eight feet long, bearing large and handsome nowera three inches across, and varying in colour from orange to red, with deep purple-red spots. I measured one spike, which reached the extraordinary lengtli of nine feet eight inches, and bore thirty-six flowers, spirally arranged upon a slender thread-like stalk. Specimens grown in our English hot-houses have produced flower-spikes of equal length, and with a much larger number of blossoms. Flowers were scarce, as is usual in equatorial forests, and it was only at rare intervals that I met with anything striking. A few fine climbers were sometimes seen, especially a handsome crimson and yellow iEschynanthus, and a fine leguminous plant with clusters of large Cassia-like flowers of a rich purple colour. Once I found a number of small Anonaceous trees of the genus Polyalthea. producing a most striking efiect in the gloomy forest shades. Tney were about thirty feet high, and their slender trunks were covered with large star-like crimson flowers, which clustered over them like garlands, and resembled some ai*tificial decoration more than a natural product. The forests abound with gigantic trees with cylindrical, but- tressed, or furrowed stems, while occasionally the traveller comes upon a wonderful fig-tree, whose trunk is itself a forest of stems and aerial roots. Still more rarely are found trees which appear to have beg^in growing in mid-air, and from the same point send out wide- spreading branches above and a com- plicated pyramid of roots descending for seventy or eighty feet v.] BORNEO— JOUENEY IN THE INTERIOR. «8 to the ground below, and so spreading on every side^ that one can Btaad in the veiy centre with the trunk of the ti'ee imnie- diat«lj; overhead. Trees of this character are found all over the Archi- pela^, and the preced- ing illustration (taken from one wliich I often visited in the Aru la- lands) will convey some idea of tlieir general character. I believe that they originate as para- sites, from seeds carried by birds and dropped in the fork of some lofty tree. Hence descend aerial roots, clasping and ultimately destroy- ing the aujiporting tree, which is in time en- tirely replaced hv tlie humble plant which was at first dependent upon it. Thus we have an actual struggle for life in the vegetable king- dom, not less fatal to the vanquished than the struggles among ani- mals which we can so much more easily ob- serve and understand. Tin quicker access to light am air, which is gained in one w plants, is here obtained b] which has the means of sta an elevation which others c after many years of gro' only when tjie fall of some made room for them. Thi the warm and moist and e of the tropics, each availii seized upon, and becomes developing new forms of adaptwl to occupy it On reaching Sarawak early in Decern- nww lowii. ber I found there would not be an oppor- tunity of returning to Singapore till the latter end of January. I therefore accepted Sir James Brooke's invitation to spend a M THE MALAY AKCHIPELAGO. [cbaf. week witli liim and Mr. St. John at his cottage on Peninjauh. This ia a very st«ep pyramidal mountain of crystalline basaltic rock, about a tliousnnd feet liigli, anil covered with luxuriant Forest. There are three Dj'nk villages upon it, and on a little platform near the summit is the rude wooden lodge where the v.] BORNEO—JOURNEY IN THE INTERIOR. 65 English Rajah was accustomed to go for relaxation and cool fresh air. It is only twenty miles up the river, but the road up the mountain is a succession of ladders on the face of precipices, bamboo bridges over gullies and chasms and slippery paths over rocks and tree-trunks and huge boulaers as big as nouses. A cool spring under an overhanging rock just below the cottage furnished us with refreshing baths and delicious drinking water, and the Dyaks brought us daily heaped-up baskets of Mangusteens and Lansats, two of the most delicious of the subacid tropical fruits. We returned to Sarawak for Christmas (the second I had spent with Sir James Brooke), when all the Europeans both in the town and from the out- stations enjoyed the hospitality of the Rajah, who possessed in a pre-eminent degree the art of making every one around him comfortable and happy. A few days afterwards I returned to the mountain with Charles and a Malay boy named Ali, and stayed there three weeks for the purpose of making a collection of land-shells, butterflies and moths, ferns and orchids. On the liill itseli ferns were tolerably plentiful, and I made a collection of about forty species. But what occupied me most was the ereat abundance of moths which on certain occasions I was able to capture. As during the whole of my eight years' wanderings in the East I never found another spot where these insects were at all plentiful, it will be interesting to state the exact conditions under which I here obtained them. On one side of the cottage there was a verandah, looking down the whole side of the mountain and to its summit on the rights all densely clothed with forest. The boarded sides of the cottage were whitewashed, and the roof of the verandah was low. and also boarded and whitewashed. As soon as it ^ot dark I placed my lamp on a table against the wall, and with pins, insect force})s, net, and collecting boxes by my side, sat down with a book. Sometimes during the whole evening only one solitary moth would visit me, while on other nights they would pour in, in a continual stream, keeping me hard at work catching and pinning till past midnight. They came literally by thousands. These good nights were very few. During the four weeks that I spent altogether on the hill I only had four really good nights, and these were always rainy, and the best of them soaking wet. But wet nights were not always good, for a rainy moonlight night produced next to nothing. AU the chief tribes of moths were represented, and the beauty and variety of the species was very great. On good nights I was able to capture from a hundred to two hundred and iifty moths, and these comprised on each occasion from half to two-thirds that number of distinct species. Some of them would settle on the wall, some on the taole. while many would fly up to the roof and give me a chase all over the verandah before I could secure them. In order to show the curious connexion between 3a THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. the state of the weather and the degree in which moths were attracted to light, I add a list of my captures each night of my stay on the hiU, Dftte. No. of Moths. 1 Renuurks. 1855. Dea Idth 1 Fine; starlight. „ 14th 75 Drizzly and fog. „ 15th 41 Showery; cloudy. ,, 16th 158 (120 species.) Steady rain. „ 17th 82 Wet ; rather moonlight „ 18th 9 Fine ; moonlight „ 19th 2 Fine; clear moonlight *, Slat 200 (130 species.) Dark and windy; heavy rain. 1856. Jan. Ist 185 Very wet. »i 2nd 68 Cloudy and showers. M 8rd 50 Cloudy. „ 4th 12 Fine. „ 5th 10 Fine. „ 6th 8 Very fine. 1. 7th 8 Very fine. ,, 8th 10 Fine. „ 9th 86 Showery, „ 10th 30 Showery. „ 11th 260 Heavy rain all night, and dark. „ 12th 56 Showery. „ 13th 44 Showery ; some moonlight „ 14th 4 Fine ; moonlight. „ 15th 24 Rain ; moonlight. „ 16th 6 Showers; moonlight „ 17th 6 Showers; moonlight. „ 18th 1 Showers; moonlight. Total 1,386 It thus appears that on twenty-six nights I collected 1.386 moths, but that more than 800 of them were collected on tour very wet and dark nights. My success here led me to hope that^ by similar arrangements, t might in every island be able to obtain abundance of these insects; but, strange to say, during the six succeeding years I was never once able to make any collections at all approaching those at Sardwak. The reason of this I can prettv well understand to be owing to the absence of some one or other essential condition tliat were here all combined. Sometimes the dry season was the hindrance ; more frequently residence in a town or village not close to virgin forest^ and surrounded by other houses whose lights were a counter-attraction ; still more frequently residence in a VI.] BORNEO— THE DYAKS. 67 dark palm-thatched house, with a lofty roof, in whose recesses every moth was lost the instant it entered. This last was the greatest drawback, and the real reason why I never again was able to make a collection of moths ; for I never afterwards lived in a solitary jungle-house with a low-boarded and whitewashed verandah, so constructed as to prevent insects at once escaping into the upper part of the house, quite out of reach. After my long expenence, my numerous failures, and my one success, I feef sure that if any party of naturalists ever make a yacht- voyage to explore the Malayan Archipelago, or any other tropical region, making entomology one of their chief pursuits, it would well repav them to carry a small framed verandah, or a verandah-shaped tent of white canvas, to set up in every favourable situation, as a means of making a collection of noc- turnal Lepidoptera, and also of obtaining rare specimens of Goleoptera ana other insects. I make the suggestion here, be- cause no one would suspect the enormous difference in results that such an apparatus would produce ; and because I consider it one of the curiosities of a collector's experience to have found out that some such apparatus is required. When I returned to Singapore I took with me the Malay lad named Ali, who subsequently accompanied me all over the Archipelaffo. Charles Allen preferred staying at the Mission- house, ana afterwards obtained employment in Sarawak and in Singapore, till he again joined me tour years later at Amboyna in the Moluccas. CHAPTER VL BORNEO— THE DYAKS. The manners and customs of the aborigines of Borneo have been described in great detail, and with much fuller information than I possess, in the writings of Sir James Brooke, Messrs. Low, St. John, Johnson Brooke, and manv others. I do not propose to go over the ground again, but shall confine myself to a sketch, from personal observation, of the general character of the Dyaks, and of such physical, moral, and social characteristics as have been less frequently noticed. The Dyak is closely allied to the Malay, and more remotely to the Siamese, Chinese, and other Mongol races. All these are characterized by a reddish-brown or yellowish-brown skin of various shades, oy iet-black straight hair, by the scanty or de- ficient beard, by the rather small and broad nose, and high cheekbones ; but none of the Malayan races have the oblique eyes which are characteristic of the more typical Mongols. The average stature of the Dyaks is rather more than that of the Malays, while it is considerably under that of most Europeans. F 2 68 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. Their forms are well proportioned, their feet and hands small^ and they rarely or never attain the bulk of body so often seen in Malays and Chinese. I am inclined to rank the Dyaks above the Malays in mental capacity, while in moral character they are undoubtedly superior to them. They are simple and lionest, and become the prey of the Malay and Chinese traders^ who cheat and plunder tnem continually. They are more lively, more talkative, less secretive, and less suspicious than the Malay, and are therefore pleasanter companions. The Malay boys have little inclination for active sports and g^ames, which form quite a feature in the life of the Dyak youths, who, besides outdoor games of skill and strength, g>ssess a variety of indoor amusements. One wet day, in a yak house, when a number of boys and young men were about me, I thought to amuse them with something new, and showed them how to make " cat's cradle " with a piece of string. Greatly to my surprise, they knew all about it, and more than I did ; for, after I and Charles had gone through all the changes we could make, one of the boys took it off my hand, and made several new figures which quite puzzled me. They then showed me a number of other tricks with pieces of string, which seemed a favourite amusement with them. Even these apparently trifling matters may assist us to form a truer estimate of the Dyaks' character and social condition. We learn thereby, that these people have passed beyond that first stage of savage life in which the struggle for existence ab- sorbs the whole faculties, and in which every thought and idea is connected with war or hunting, or the pix)vision for their immediate necessities. These amusements indicate a capability of civilization, an aptitude to enjoy other than mere sensual pleasures, which might be taken advantage of to elevate their whole intellectual and social life. The moral character of the Dyaks is undoubtedly high — a statement which will seem strange to those who have heard of them only as head-hunters and pirates. The Hill Dyaks of whom I am speaking, however, have never been pirates, since they never go near the sea ; and head-hunting is a custom originating in the petty wars of village with village, and tribe with tribe, which no more implies a bad moral character than did the custom of the slave-traae a hundred years ago imi)ly want of general morality in all who participated in it. Against this one stain on their character (which m the case of the Sarawak Dyaks no longer exists) we nave to set many good points. They are truthful and honest to a remarkable degree. From this cause it is very often impossible to get from tliem any definite information, or even an opinion. Tney say, " If I were to tell you what I don't know, I miglit tell a lie ; " and whenever they voluntarily relate any matter of fact, you may be sure they are speaking the truth. In a Dyak village the fruit trees have each their owner, and it has often happened to me, on asking an inhabitant to gather me Ti.] BORNEO— THE DYAKS. 69 some fruit, to be answered, " I can't do that, for the owner of the tree is not here ; " never seeming to contemplate the possibility of acting otherwise. Neither will they take the smallest thing belonging to an European. When living at Simunjon, the^ con- tinually came to my house, and would pick up scraps ot torn newspaper or crooked pins that I had thrown away, and ask as a great favour whether they might Jiave them. Crimes of violence (other than head-hunting) are almost unknown ; for in twelve years, under Sir James Brooke's rule, there had been only one case of murder in a Dyak tribe, and that one was committed by a stranger who had been adopted into the tribe. In several other matters of morality they rank above most uncivilized, and even above many civilized nations. They are temperate in food and drink, and the gross sensuality of the Chinese and Malays is unknown among them. Thev have the usual fault of all people in a half -savage state — apatny and dilatoriness ; but, however annoying this may be to Europeans who come in contact with them, it cannot be considered a very ^rave offence, or be held to outweigh their many excellent qualities. During my residence among the Hill Dyaks, I was much struck by the apparent absence of those causes which are generally supposed to check the increase of population, although there were plain indications of stationary or but slowly increasing numbers. The conditions most favourable to a rapid increase of population are, an abundance of food, a healthy climate, and earlv man*iages. Here these conditions all exist. The people produce far more food than they consume, and exchange the surplus for gongs and brass cannon, ancient jars, and gold and silver ornaments, which constitute tneir wealth. On the whole, they appear very free from disease, marriages take place early (but not too earlyX and old bachelors and old maids are alike unknown. Why, tnen, we must inquire, has not a greater popu- lation been proauced ? Why are the Dyak villages so smaU and so widely scattered, while nine-tenths of the country is still covered with forest i ^ Of all the checks to population among savage nations men- tioned by Malth us-— starvation, disease, war, infanticide, im- morality, and infertility of the women —the last is that which he seems to think least important, and of doubtful efficacy ; and yet it is the only one that seems to me capable of accounting for the state of the population among the Sarawak Dyaks. The population of Great Britain increases so as to double itself in about fifty years. To do this it is evident that each married couple must average three children who live to be married at the aee of about twenty-five. Add to these those who die in infancy, those who never marry, or those who marry late in life and have no offspring, the number of children bom to each marriage must average four or five ; and we know that families of seven or eight are very common, and of ten and twelve by no means rar& Sut from inquiries at almost every J)yak tribe I visited. I as- 70 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. oertained that the women rarely had more than three or four children, and an old chief assured me that he had never known a woman have more than seven. In a village consisting of a hundred and fifty families, only one consisted of six children living, and only six of five children, the majority appearing to be two, three, or four. Comparing this with the known proportions in Eyropean countries, it is evident tliat the number of children to each marriage can hardly average more than three or four ; and as even in civilized countries half the population die before the age of twenty-five, we should have only two left to replace their parents ; and so long as this state of things continued, the population must remain stationary. Of course this is a mere illustration ; but the facts I have stated seem to indicate that something of the kind really takes place ; and if so, there is no difiicult^ in understanding the smallness and almost stationary population of the Dyak tribes. We have next to inquire what is the cause of the small number of births and of living children in a family. Climate and race may have sometliing to do with this, but a more real and efficient cause seems to me to be the hard labour of the women, and the heavy weights they constantly carry. A Dyak woman generally spends trie whole day in the field, and carries home every night a heavy load of vegetables and firewood, often for sevei*al miles, over rough and hifly paths ; and not unfreauently has to climb up a rocky mountain dv ladders, and over slipi>ery stepping-stones, to an elevation of a thousand feet. Besides this, she has an hour's work every evening to pound the rice with a heavy wooden stamper, which violently strains every part of the body. She begins this kind of labour when nine or ten years old, and it never ceases but with the extreme de- crepitude of age. Surely we need not wonder at the limited number of her progeny, but rather be surprised at the successful efibrts of nature to prevent the extermination of the race. One of the surest and most beneficial efiects of advancing civiliziition, will be the amelioration of the condition of these women. The precept and example of higher races will make the Dyak ashamed of his comparatively idle life, while his weaker partner labours like a beast of burthen. As his wants become increased and his taste refined, the women will have more household duties to attend to, and will then cease to labour in the field — a change which has already to a great extent taken place in the allied Malay, Javanese, and bugis tribes. Population will then certainly increase more rapidly, improved systems of agriculture and some division of labour will become necessary in order to provide the means of existence, and a more com- plicated social state will take the place of the simple conditions of society which now obtain among them. But, with the sharper struggle for existence that will then occur, will the happiness of the people as a whole be increased or diminished ? Will not evil pussions be aroused by the spirit of competition, and crimes and VI.] BORNEO— THE DYAKS. 71 vices, now unknown or dormant^ be called into active existence? These are problems that time alone can solve ; but it is to be hoped that education and a high-class Euro})ean example may obviate much of the evil i hat too often arises in analogous cases, and that we may at length be able to point to one instance ot an uncivilized people who have not become demoralized and finalhr exterminated, by contact with European civilization. A tew words in conclusion^bout the government of Sardwak. Sir James Brooke found the Dvaks oppressed and ground down by the most cruel tyranny. They were cheated by the Malay traders, and robbed by the Malay chiefs. Their wives and children were often captured and sold into slavery, and hostile tribes purchased nermission from their cruel rulers to nlunder, enslave, ^nd murder tiiem. Anything like justice or redress for these injuries was utterly unattainable. From the time Sir James obtained possession of the country, all this .was stopped. Equal justice was awarded to Malay, Chinaman, and Dyak. llie remorseless pirates from the rivers farther east were punished, and finally snut up within their own territories, and the Dyak, for the first time, could sleep in peace. His wife and chilaren were now safe from slavery ; nis house was no longer burnt over his head ; his crops and his fruits were now his own, to sell or consume as he pleased. And the unknown stranger who had done all this for them, and asked for nothing in return, what could he be? How was it possible for them to realize his motives ? Was it not natural that they should refuse to believe he was a man ? for of pure benevolence combined with great power, they had hsul no exi)erience among men. They naturallv concluded that he was a superior being, come down upon earth to confer blessings on the afflicted. In many villages where he had not been seen, I was asked strange questions about him. Was he not as old as the mountains ? Could he not bring the dead to life ? And they firmly believe that he can give them good harvests, and make their fruit-trees bear an abundant crop. In forming a proper estimate of Sir James Brookes govern- ment, it must ever oe remembered that he held Sardwak solely by the goodwill of the native inhabitants. He had to deal witn two races, one of whom, the Mahometan Malays, looked upon the other race, the Dvaks, as savages and slaves, only fit to be robbed and plundered. He has effectually protected the Dyaks, and has invariably treated them as, in his sight, equal to the Malays * and yet he has secured the affection and goodwill of both. Notwithstanding the religious prejudices of Mahometans, he has induced them to modify many of their worst laws and customs, and to assimilate their criminal code to that of the civilized world. That his government still continues, after twenty-seven years — notwithstanding his frequent absences from lU-health, notwithstanding conspiracies of Malay chiefs, and insurrections of Chinese gold-diggers, all of which have 72 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. been overcome by the suppoi*t of the native population, and notwithstanding financial, political, and domestic troubles — is due, I believe, solely to the many admirable qualities which Sir James Brooke possessed, and especially to his having convinced the native population, by every action of his life, that he ruled them, not for his own advantege, but for their good. Since these lines were wtitten, his noble spirit has passed away. But though, by those who knew him not, he may be sneered at as an enthusiastic adventurer, or abused as a hard- hearted despot, the universal testimony of every one who came in contact with him in his adopted country, whether European, Malay, or Dyak, will be, that Kajah Brooke was a great, a wise, and a good ruler — a true and faithful friend — a man to be ad- mired for his talents, resi)ected for his honesty and courage, and loved for his genuine hospitality, his kindness of disposition, and his tenderness of heart.^ CHAPTER VII. JAVA. I SPENT three months and a half in Java, from July 18th to October Slst, 1861, and shall briefly describe my own movements, and my observations on the people and the natural history of the country. To all those who wish to understand how the Dutch now govern Java, and how it is that they are enabled to derive a large annual revenue from it, while the population in- creases, and the inhabitants are contented, I recommend the study of Mr. Money's excellent and interesting work, How to Manage a Colony, The main facts and conclusions of that work I most heartily concur in, and I believe that the Dutch system is the very best that can be adopted, when a European nation conquers or otherwise acquires possession of a country inhabited by an industrious but semi-barbarous people. In my account of Northern Celebes, I shall show how successfully the same system has been applied to a people in a very different state of civilization from tne Javanese ; and in the meanwhile will state in the fewest words possible what that system is. The mode of government now adopted in Java is to retain the whole series of native rulers, from the village chief up to princes, who, under the name of Kegents, are the heads of aistricts about the size of a small English county. With each Eegent is 1 The present Riyah, Charles Johnson Brooke, nepliew of Sir James, seems to have continued tiie goyemmei^t In the spirit of its founder. Its territories have been extended by friendly arrangement with the Sultan of Bruni so as to include the laiger part of the norUi-west district of Borneo, and peace and prosperity have everywhere been main- tained. Fifty years of government of alien and anta^nistic races, with their own consent, and with the continued support of the native chiefs, is a success of wliich the friends and coantxrmen of Sir James Brooke may well be proud. / VII.] JAVA. 78 I>laced a Dutch Resident, or Assistant Resident, who is con- sidered to be his " elder brother," and whose " orders " take the form of " recominendations," which are however implicitly obeyed. Along with each Assistant Resident is a Controller, a kind of inspector of all the lower native rulers, who periodically visits every village in the district, examines tne proceedings of the native courts hears complaints against the head-men or other native chieis, and superintends the Government planta- tions. This brings us to the "culture system," which is the source of all the wealth the Dutch derive from Java, and is the Bubiect of much abuse in this country because it is the reverse of free trade." To understand its uses and beneficial effects, it is necessary first to sketch the common results of free European trade with uncivilized peoples. Natives of tropical climates have few wants, and, when these are supplied, are disinclined to work for superfluities without some strong incitement. With such a people the introduction of any view or systematic cultivation is almost impossible, except by the despotic orders of chiefs whom they have been accustom^ to obey, as children obey their parents. The free comi)etition of European traders, however, introduces two powerful induce* ments to exertion. Spirits or opium is a temptation too strong for most savages to resist, and to obtain these he will sell what- ever he has, and will work to get more. Another temptation he cannot resist, is goods on credit. The trader offers him gay cloths, knives, gongs, g^ns, and gunpowder, to be paid for by some crop perhaps not yet planted, or some product yet in the forest. He has not sufficient forethought to take only a moderate quantity, and not enough energy to work early and late in order to get out of debt ; and the consequence is that he accumulates debt upon debt, and often remains for vears, or for life, a debtor and almost a slave. Tliis is a state of things which occurs very largely in every part of the world in which men of a superior race freely trade with men of a lower race. It extends trade no doubt for a time, but it demoralizes the native, checks true civilization, and does not lead to any permanent increase in the wealth of the country ; so that the European government of such a country must be carried on at a loss. The system introduced by the Dutch was to induce the people, through their chiefs, to give a portion of their time to the cultivation of coffee, sug^r, and other valuable products. A fixed rate of wages — low indeed, but about equal to that of all places where European competition has not artificially raised it — was paid to the labourers engaged in* clearing the ^ound and foitning the plantations under Government supenntendenoe The produce is sold to the Government at a low fixed price. Out of the^ net profits a percentage goes to the chiefs, and the remainder is divided among the workmen. This surplus in good years is something considerable. On the whole, the people are well fed and decently clothed ; and have acquired habits of 74 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. steady industry and the art of scientific cultivation, which must be of service to them in the future. It must be remembered, that the Government expended capital for years before anj return was obtained ; and if they now derive a large revenue, it is in a way which is far less burtnensome, and far more beneficial to the people, than any tax that could be levied. But although the system may be a good one, and as well adapted to the development of arts and industry in a half- civilized people, as it is to the material advantage of the governing country, it is not pretended that in practice it is perfectly carried out. The oppressive and servile relations between chiefs and people, whicli have continued for perhaps a thousand years, cannot be at once abolished ; and some evil must result from those relations, till the spread of education and the gradual infusion of European blood causes it naturally and insensibly to disappear. It is said that the Residents, desirous of showing a large increase in the products of their districts, have sometimes pressed the people to such continued labour on the plantations that their rice crops have been materiallv diminished, and famine has been the result. If this has happened, it is certainly not a common thing, and is to be set down to the abuse of the system, by the want of judgment or want of humanity in the Resident. A tale has lately been written in Holland, and translated into English, entitled ifax Havelaar; or^ Tfie Co fee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company^ and with our usual one-sidedness in all relating to the Dutch Colonial System, this work has been excessively praised, both for its own merits, and for its supposed crushing exposure of the iniquities of the Dutch government of Java. Greatly to my surprise, I found it a very tedious and long-winded story, full of rambling digressions * and whose only Soint is to show that the Dutch Residents ana Assistant Resi- ents wink at the extortions of the native princes ; and that in some districts the natives have to do wort without payment, and have their goods taken away from them without com- pensation. Every statement of this kind is thickly interspersed with italics and capital letters ; but as the names are all fic- titious, and neither dates, figures, nor details are ever given, it is impossible to verify or answer them. Even if not exaggerated, the facts stated are not nearly so bad as those of the oppression by free-trade indigo-planters, and torturing by native tax- gatherers under Britisn rule in India, with which the readers of English newspapers were familiar a few years ago. Such op- ' pression, however, is not fairly to be imputed in either case to tlie particular form of government, but is ratlier due to the infirmity of human nature, and to the impossibility of at once destroying all trace of ages of despotism on the one side, and of slavish obedience to their chiefs on the other. It must be remembered, that the complete establishment of the Dutch power in Java is much more recent than that of our VII.] JAVA. 76 rule in India^ and that there have been several changes of government, and in the mode of raising revenue. The inhabit- ants have been so recently under the rule of their native princes, that it is not easy at once to destroy the excessive reverence they feel for their old masters, or to diminish the oppressive exactions which the latter have always been accus- tomed to make. There is, however, one grand test of the prosperity, and even of the happiness, of a community, wjiich we can apply here — the rate of increase of the population. It is universally admitted, that when a country increases rapidly in population, the people cannot be very greatly oppressed or very baaly governed. The present system of raising a revenue by the cultivation of coffee and sugar, sold to Qovemment at a fixed price, began in 1832. Just before this, in 1826, the population by census was 5,500,000, while at the beginning of the century it was estimated at 3,500,000. In 1850, when the cultivation system had been in operation eighteen years, the population by census was over 9,500,000, or an increase of seventy- three per cent, in twenty-four years. At the last census, in 1865, it amounted to 14,168,416, an increase of very nearly fiftv per cent, in fifteen years — a rate which would double the population in about twenty-six years. As Java (with Madura) contains about 38,500 geographical square miles, this will ffive an average of 368 persons to the square mile, just double that of the populous and fertile Beneai Presidency as given in Thornton's Gazetteer of India, and fully one-third more than that of Great Britain and Ireland at the last census. If. as I believe, this vast population is on the whole contented ana happy, the Dutch Qovemment should consider well before abruptly changing a system which has led to such great results.^ Taking it as a whole, and surveying it from every point of view, Java is prolmbly the very finest and most interestinjg tropical island in the world. It is not first in size, but it is more than 600 miles long, and from sixty to 120 miles wide, and in area is nearly equal to England ; and it is undoubtedly the most fertile, the most productive, and the most populotis island within the tropics. Its whole surface is magnificently varied with mountain and forest scenery. It possesses thirty-eiffht volcanic mountains, several of which nse to. ten or twelve thousand feet high. Some of these are in constant activity, and one or other of them displays almost every phenomenon pro- duced by the action of subterranean fires, except regular lava streams, which never occur in Java. The abundant moisture and tropical heat of the climate causes these mountains to be clothed with luxuriant ve^tation, often to their very summits, while forests and plantations cover their lower slopes. The animal productions, especially the birds and insects, are 1 In 1870 the populatiou had still further Increased to over nineteen milllona, and In 1804 to twenty-iiTe mlUione. 7« THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. beautiful and varied, and present many peculiar forms found nowhere else upon the globe. The soil throughout the island is exceedingly fertile, and all the productions of the tropics, together with many of the temperate zones, can be easily culti- vated. Java too possesses a civilization, a history and anti- quities of its own, of great interest. The Brahminical religion nourished in it from an epoch of unknown antiquity till about the year 1478, when that ot Mahomet sui^erseded it. The former religion was accompanied by a civilization which has not been equalled b^ the conquerors ; for, scattered through the country, especially in the eastern part of it, are found buried in lofty forests, temples, tombs, and statues of great beauty and grandeur ; and the remains of extensive cities, where the tiger, the rhinoceros, and the wild bull now roam undisturbed. A modern civilization of another type is now spreading over the land. Good roads run through the country from end to end ; European and native rulers work harmoniously together ; and life and property are as well secured as in the best governed states of Europe. I believe, therefore, that Java may fairly claim to be the finest tropical island in the world, and equally interesting to the tourist seeking after new and beautiful scenes ; to the naturalist wlio desires to examine the variety and beauty of tropical nature ; or to the moralist and the politician who want to solve the problem of how man may be best governed under new and varied conditions. The Dutch mail steamer brought me from Temate to Soura- baya, the chief town and port in the eastern part of Java, and after a fortnight spent in packing up and sending off my last collections, I started on a short journey into the interior. Travelling in Java is very luxurious but very expensive, the only way Deing to hire or borrow a carriage, and then pay half- a-crown a mile for post-horses, which are changed at regular posts every six miles, and will carry you at the rate of ten miles an hour from one end of the island to the other. Bullock carts or coolies are required to cany all extra baggage. As this kind of travelling would not suit my means, I determined on making only a short journey to the district at the foot of Mount Arjuna, where I was told there were extensive fore.sts, and where I hoped to be able to make some good collections. The country for many miles behind Sourabaya is perfectly flat and everywhere culti- vated, being a delta or alluvial plain watered by many branch- ing streams. Immediately around the town the evident signs of wealth and of an industrious population were very pleasing: but as we went on, the constant succession of open fielas skirtea by rows of bamboos, with here and there the white buildings and tall chimney of a sugar-mill, became monotonous. The roads run in straight lines for several miles at a stretch, and are bordered by rows of dusty tamarind-trees. At each mile there are little guard-houses, where a policeman is stationed ; and VII.] JAVA. 77 there is a wooden gong:, which by means of concerted signals may be made to convey information over the country with great rapidity. About every six or seven miles is the post-house, where the horses are changed as quicklv as were those of the mail in the old coaching days in England. I stopped at Modjo-kerto, a small town about forty miles south of Sourabaya, and the nearest point on the high road to the district I wished to visit. I had a letter of introduction to Mr. Ball, an Englishman long resident in Java and married to a Dutch lady, and he kindly invited me to stay with him till I could fix on a place to suit me. A Dutch Assistant Resident as well as a Regent or native Javanese prince lived here. The town was neat, and liad a nice open grassy space like a village green, on which stood a magnificent fig-tree (allied to the Banyan of India, but more lofty), under whose shade a kind of market is continually held, and where the inhabitants meet together to lounge ana chat. The day after my arrival, Mr. Ball drove me over to the village of Modjo-agong, where he was building a house and premises for the tobacco trade, which is carried on here bv a system of native cultivation and advance purchase, somewhat similar to the indigo trade in British India. On our way we stayed to look at a fragment of the i*uins of the ancient city of Modjo-pahit, consisting of two lofty brick masses, ap- parently the sides of a gateway. The extreme perfection and peauty of the brickwork astonished me. The bricks are exceed- ingly fine and hard, with sharp angles and true surfaces. They are laid with great exactness, without visible mortar or cement, yet somehow nsistened together so that the joints are hardly per- ceptible, and sometimes the two sui*faces coalesce in a most in- comprehensible manner. Such admirable brickwork I have never seen before or since. There was no sculpture here, but abundance of bold projections and finely-worked mouldings. Traces of buildings exist for many miles in every direction, and almost every road and pathway shows a foundation of brickwork beneath it— the paved roads of the old city. In the house of the Waidono or district chief at Modjo-agong, i saw a beautiful figure carved in high relief out of a block of lava, and which had been found buried in the ground near the village. On my expressing a wish to obtain some such specimen, Mr. B. asked the chief for it, and much to my surprise ne immediately gave it me. It re- J resented the Hindoo goddess Durga, called in Java, Lora onggrang (the exalted virgin). She has eight arms, and stands on the back of a kneeling bull.- Her lower right hand holds the tail of the bull, while the corresponding lert hand grasps the hair of a captive, Dewth Mahikusor, the personification of vice, who has attempted to slay her bull. He has a cord round his waist^ and crouches at her feet in an attitude of supplication. The other hands of the goddess hold, on her right side, a double hook or small anchor, a broad straight sword, and a noose of thick cord ; on her left^ a girdle or armlet of large beads or 78 THE MALAY AECHIPELAGO. (ob*p. ■bellB, an unstruDg bow, aod a standard or war flag. Thii deity was a special favourite among the old Javanese, and her imtwe is often found in the ruined temples which abound in tAe eastern part of the island. The specimen I had obtained was a small one, about two feet high, weighing perhaps a hundredweight ; and the next day we had It conveyed to Modjo-kerto to await my return toSourabaya. Having decided to stay some time at Wonosalem, on the lower slopes of the Arjuna Mountain, where I was informed I should find forest and plenty of game, I hnd first to obtain a recom- mendation from the Assistant Itesident to the Regent, and then an order from the Reeent to the Waidono ; and when after a week's delay I arrived with my baggage and men at Modjo- amsng, I found them all in the midst oi a five days' feast, to celebrate the circumcision of the Waidono's younger orother and cousin, and had a small room in an outhouse given me to stay in. Yli.] JAVA. 79 The courtyard and the great open reoeption-shed were full of natives coming and going and making preparations for a feast which was to take place at midnight, to which I was invited, but preferred going to bed. A native band, or Gamelang, was play- ing almost all the evening, and I haa a good opportunity of seeing the instruments ana musicians. The former are chiefly gongs of various sizes, arranged in sets of from eight to twelve, on low wooden frames. Each set is played by one performer with one or two drumsticks. There are also some very large gongs, played singly or in pairs, and taking the place of our arums and kettledrums. Other instruments are formed by broad metallic bars, supported on strings stretched across frames ; and others again of strips of bamboo similarly placed and producing the highest notes. Besides these there were a flute and a curious two-stringed violin, requiring in all twenty-four performers. There was a conductor, who led off and regulated the time, and each performer took his part, coming in occasionally^ with a few bars so as to form a harmonious combination. The pieces played were long and complicated, and some of the players were mere bo^s, who took their parts with great precision. The general effect was very pleasing, but, owing to the similarity of most of the instruments, more like a ^gantic musical box than one of our bands : and in order to enjoy it thoroughly it is necessary to watch the large number of performers who are engaged in it. The next morning, while I was waiting for the men and horses who were to take me and my baggage to my destination, the two lads, who were about fourteen years old, were brought out, clothed in a sarong from the waist downwards, and having the whole body covered with a yellow powder, and profusely decked with white blossoms in wreaths, necklaces, and armlets, looking at first sight verv like savage brides. Thev were conducted by two priests to a bench placed in front of the house in the open air, and the ceremony of circumcision was then performed before the assembled crowd. The road to Wonosalem led through a magnificent forest, in the depths of which we passed a fine ruin of what appeared to have been a roval tomb or mausoleum. It is formed entirely of stone, and elaborately carved. Near the base is a course of boldly projecting blocics, sculptured in liigh relief, with a series of scenes which are probably incidents in the life of the defunct. These are all beautifully executed, some of the figures of animals in particular being easily recognizable and very accurate. The general design, as far as the ruined state of the upper part will permit of its being seen, is very good, effect being given by an immense number and variety of projecting or retreating courses of squared stones in place of mouldings. The size of this structure is about thirty feet square by twenty high, and as the traveller comes suddenly upon it on a small elevation by the roadside, overshadowed by giffantic trees, overrun with plants and creepers, and closely backed by the gloomy forest, he is struck 80 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. by the solemnity and picturesque beauty of the scene, and is led to ponder on the strange law of pro^n*e8s, which looks so like re- trogression, and which m so many distant parts of the world has exterminated or driven out a highly artistic and constructive race, to make room for one which, as far as we can judge, is very far its inferior. Few Englishmen are aware of the number and beauty of the architectural remains in Java. They have never been popularly illustrated or described, and it will therefore t^ke most persons by surprise to learn that they far surpass those of Central America^ perhaps even those of India. To give some idea of these rums, and perchance to excite wealthy amateurs to explore them thoroughly and obtain by photography an accurate record of their beautiful sculptures before it is tcK> late, I will enumerate the most important, as briefly described in Sir Stamford Baffles' Ilistory of Java, Brahbanam. — Near the centre of Java, between the native capitals of Djoko-kerta and Surakerta, is the village of Bram- banam, near which are abundance of ruins, the most impoiiant being the temples of Loro-Jongran and Chandi Sewa. At Loro- Jongran there were twenty separate buildings, six large and fourteen small temples. Thev are now a mass of ruins, but the largest temples ai*e supposed to have been ninety feet high. They were atll constructed of solid stone, everywhere decorated with carN'ings and bas-reliefs, and adorned with numbers of statues, many of which still remain entire. At Chandi Sewa, or the "Thousand Temples,'' are many fine colossal figures. Captain Baker, who surveved these ruins, said he had never in his life seen " such stupendous and finished specimens of human labour, and of the science and taste of ages lon^ since foreot, crowded together in so small a compass as in this spot." Tney cover a space of nearly six hundred feet square, and consist of an outer row of eighty-four small temples, a second row of seventy- six, a third of sixty-four, a fourth of forty-four, and the fifth forming an inner parallelogram of twenty-eight; in all two hundred and ninety-six small temples, disposed in five regular parallelograms. In the centre is a large cruciform temple sur- rounded by lofty flights of steps richly ornamented with sculpture, and containing many apartments. The tropical vege- tation has ruined most of the smaller temples, but some remain tolerably perfect, from which the effect of the whole may be imagined. About half a mile off is another temple called Chandi Kali Bening, seventy -two feet square and sixty feet high, in very fine preservation, and covered with sculptures of Hindoo mythology surpassing any that exist in India. Other ruins of palaces, halls and temples, with abundance of sculptured deities, are found in the same neighbourhood. BoROBODO. — About eighty miles westward, in the province of Kedu, is the great temple of Boroboda It is built upon a small vu.] JAVA. 81 hilL and consists of a central dome and seven ranges of terraced walls covering the slope of the hill and forming open galleries each below the other, and communicating by steps and ^teways. The central dome is fifty feet in diameter ; around it is a triple circle of seventy-two towers, and the whole building is six hundred and twenty feet square, and about one hundred feet high. In the terrace walls are niches containing cross-legged figures larger than life to the number of about four hundred, and both sides of all the terrace walls are covered with bas-reliefs crowded with figures, and carved in hard stone ; and which must therefore occupy an extent of nearly three miles in length I The amount of human labour and skill expended on the Great Pyramids of Egypt sinks into insignificance when compared with that required to complete this sculptured hill-temple in the interior of Java. QuNONG Pkatj. — About forty miles south-west of Samaran^, on a mountain called Gunong Prau, an extensive plateau is covered with ruins. To reach these temples four flights of stone steps were made m> the mountain from opposite directions, each flight consisting ot more than a thousand steps. Traces of nearly four hundred temples have been found here, and many (perhaps all) were decorated with rich and delicate sculptures. The whole countrv between this and Brambanam, a distance of sixty miles, abounds with ruins : so that fine sculptured images may be seen lying in the ditches, or built into the walls of enclosures. In the eastern part of Java, at Kediri and in Malan^, there are eaually abundant traces of antiquity, but the buildings them- selves have been mostly destroyed. Sculptured figures, however, abound ; and the ruins of forts, palac^ baths, aqueducts ana temples, can be everywhere tracecL It is altogether contrary to the plan of this book to describe what I have not myself seen ; but, having been led to mention them, I felt bound to do some- thing to call attention to these marvellous works of art. One is overwhelmed by the contemplation of these innumerable sculp- tures, worked with delicacy and artistic feeling in a hani, intractable, trachytic rock, and all found in one tropical island. What could have oeen the state of society, what the amount of population, what the means of subsistence which rendered such gigantic works possible, will, perhaps, ever remain a mystery ; and it is a wondei*ful example of the power of religious ideas in social life, that in the very country where, five hundred years ago, these grand works were being yearly executed, the in- habitants now only build rude houses of bamboo and thatch, and look upon these relics of their forefathers with ignorant amazement, as the undoubted productions of Riants or of demons. It is much to be regretted thlEit the Dutch Government do not take vi^rous steps for the preservation of these ruins from the destroying agency of tropical vegetation ; and for the collection of the fine sculptures which are everywhere scattered over the land. o 82 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap, Wonosalem is situated about a thousand feet above the sea, but unfortunately it is at a distance from the forest^ and is sur- rounded by coffee-plantation^ thickets of bamboo, and coarse grasses. It was too far to walk back daily to the forest, and in other directions I could find no collecting ground for insects. The place was, however, famous for peacocks, and my boy soon shot several of these magniBcent birds, whose flesh we found to be tender, white, and delicate, and similar to that of a turkey. The Java peacock is a different species from that of India, the neck )yemg covered with scale-like green feathers, and the crest of a different form : but the eyed train is equally large and equally beautifuL It is a singular fact in geo^aphical dis- tribution that the peacock should not be found in Sumatra or Borneo, while the superb Argus, Fire-backed, and Ocellated Eheasants of those islands are equally unknown in Java. Ixactly parallel is the fact that in Ceylon and Southern India, where the peacock abounds, there are none of the splendid Lophophori and other gorgeous pheasants which inhabit Northern India. It would seem as it the peacock can admit of no rivals in its domain. Were these birds rare in their native country, and unknown alive in Europe, they would assuredly be considered as the true princes of the feathered tribes, and alto- gether unrivalled for stateliness and beauty. As it is, I suppme scarcely any one if asked to fix upon the most beautiful binl in the world would name the x)eacock, any more than the Papuan savaee or the Bugis trader would fix upon the bird of paradise for the same honour. Three days after my arrival at Wonosalem, my friend Mr. Ball came to pay me a visit. He told me that two evenings before, a boy had been killed and eaten by a tiger close to Modjo-agong. He was riding on a cart drawn by bullocks, and was coming home about dusk on the main road ; and when not half a mile from the village a tiger sprang upon him, carried him off into the jungle close by, and devoured him. Next morning his I'emains were discovered, consisting only of a few mangled bones. The Waidono had got together about seven hundred men, and was in chase of the animal, which, I afterwards heard, they found and killed. They only use spears when in pursuit of a tiger in this way. They surround a lar^e tract of country, and draw gradually together till the animal is enclosed in a compact ring of armed men. When he sees there is no escape he generally makes a spring, and is received on a dozen spears, and almost instantly stabbed to death. The skin of an animal thus killed is. of course, worthier and in this case the skull, which I had begged ^[r. Ball to secure for me, was hacked to pieces to divide the teeth, which are worn as charms. After a week at Wonosalem, I returned to the foot of the mountain, to a village named Djapannan, which was surrounded by several patches of forest, and seemed altogether pretty well suited to my pursuits. The chief of the village had prepared VII.] JAVA. 88 two small bamboo rooms on one side of his own courtyard to accommodate me, and seemed inclined to assist me as much as he could. The weather was exceedingly hot and dry, no rain having fallen for several months, and there was, in consequence, a great scarcitv of insects, and especially of beetles. I therefore devoted myself chiefly to obtaining a ^od set of the birds, and succeeded m making a tolerable couection. All the peacocks we had hitherto shot had had short or imperfect tails, but I now obtained two magnificent specimens more than seven feet long, one of which I preserved entire, while I kept the train onfy attached to the tail of two or three others. When this bird is seen feeding on. the ground, it appears wonderful how it can rise into the air with such a long ana cumberaome train of feathers. It does so, however, with great ease, by running quickly for a short distance, and then rising obliquely ; and will ny over trees of a consideraole height. I also obtained here a specimen of the rare green jungle-fowl ^Gallus furcatus), whose back and neck are beautifully scaled with bronzy feathers, and whose smooth- edged oval comb is of a violet purple colour, changing to green at the base. It is also remarkable in possessing a single large wattle beneath its throat, brightly coloured in tnree patches of redf yellow, and blue. The common jungle-cock (Gallus bankiva) was also obtained here. It is almost exactly like a common gamecock, but the voice is different, being much shorter and more abrupt ; whence its native name is Bek^ko. Six different kinds of woodpeckers and four kingfishers were found hera the fine hombill, Iftuceros lunatus, more tlian four feet long, and the pretty little lorikeet, Loriculus pusillus, scarcely more than as many inches. One morning, as I was preparing and arranging my speci- mens, I was tola there was to oe a trial ; and presently four or five men came in and squatted down on a mat under the audience-shed in the court. The chief then came in with his clerk, and sat down opposite them. Each spoke in turn, telling his own tale, and then I found out that those who first entered were the prisoner, accuser, policeman, and witness, and that the prisoner was indicated solely by having a loose piece of cord twined round his wrists, but not tied. It was a case of robbery, and after the evidence was given, and a few questions had been asked by the chief, the accused said a few words, and then sen- tence was pronounced, which was a fine. The parties then got up and walked away together, seeming quite friendly; and throughout there was nothing in the manner of any one present indicating passion or ill-feeling — a very good illustration of the Malayan type of character. In a month's collecting at Wonosalem and Djapannan I accu- mulated ninety-eight species of birds, but a most miserable lot of insects. I then determined to leave East Java and try the more moist and luxuriant districts at the western extremity of the island. I returned to Sourabaya by water, in a roomy boat G 2 S4 THE MALAY ARCHIPBLAQO. [cnAt. which broaeht myself, servants, and baggage at one-fifth the expense it had cost me to come to Modjo-kerto. The river hu been rendered navigable by being carefully banked up, but with the usual effect of rendering the adjacent country liable occasionally to severe floods. An imoieose traffic passes down this river ; and at a lock we passed through, a mile of laden boats were waiting two or three deep, which pass through in their turn six at a time. A few days after- wards I went by steamer to Batavia, where I stayed about a week at the chief hotel, while I made arrangements for a trip into the interior. The business part of the city is near the harbour, but the hotels and all the residences of the officials and Euro- pean merchants are in a suburb two miles off, laid out in wide streets and squares so aa to cover a great extent of ground. This is very incon- venient for visitors, as the only public conveyances are handsome two-horse carriages, whose low- est chaive is five Kilders (St. 4d.) for If a day, so that KiBTKAiT or i»T*»Mi cHiiT ^n hour's business in the morning and a visit in the evening costs 16i. Sd. a day for carriage hire Batavia agrees very well with Mr. Money's graphic account of it, except that his "clear canals "were ail muddy, and his "smooth gravel drives" up to the houses were one and all formed of coarse pebbles, very painful to walk upon, and liardly explained by the fact that in ^tavtaeverylxxly drives, as it can hardly be supposed that people never walk in their gardens. The H6te1 des Indes was very comforiiable, each visitor having a Bitting-room and liedroom opening on a verandah, where he can ▼II.] JAVA. 86 take his morning ooiiee and afternoon tea. In the centre of the quadrangle is a building containing a number of marble baths always ready for use ; and there is an excellent table (TMie breakfast at ten, and dinner at six, for all which there is a moderate charge per day. I went by coach te Buitenzorg, foi*ty miles inland and about a thousand feet above the sea, celebrated for its delicious climate and its Botanical Gardens. With the latter I was somewhat disappointed. The walks were all of loose pebbles, making any lenffthened wanderings about them very tiring and painful under a tropical sun. The gardens are no doubt wonderfully rich in tropical and especially in Malavan plants, but there is a great absence of skilful laying-out ; there are not enough men to keep the place thoroughlv in order, and the plants themselves are seldom to be compared for luxuriance and beauty to the same species grown in our hothouses. This can easily l^e ex- plained. The plants can rarely be placed in natural or verv favourable conditions. The climate is either too hot or too cool, too moist or too dry, for a large proportion of them, and they seldom get the exact quantity of shade or the right quality of soil to suit them. In our stoves these varied conditions can be supplied to each individual plant far better than in a large {garden, where the fact that the plants are most of them growing m or near their native country is supposed to preclude the necessity of giving them much individual attention. Still, how- ever, there is much to admire here. There are avenues of stately palms, and clumps of bamboos of perhaps fifty different kinds ; and an endless variety of tropical shrubs and trees with strange and beautiful foliage. As a change from the excessive heats of Batavia, Buitenzorig^ is a delightful abode. It is just elevated enough to have deliciously cool evenings and nights, but not so much as to require any change of clothing ; and to a person long resident in the hotter climate of the plains, the air is always fresh and pleasant, and admits of walking at almost an;^ hour of the day. The vicinity is most pictures(][ue and luxuriant, and the great volcano of Gunung-Salak. with its truncated and jagged summit, forms a characteristic backfipround to many of the land- scapes. A great mud eruption took place in 1699, since which date the mountain has been entirely inactive. On leaving Buitenzorg, I had coolies to carry my baggage and a horse for myself, both to be changed every six or seven miles. The road rose gradually, and after the nrst stage the hills closed in a little on each side, forming a broad valley ; and the temperature was so cool and agreeable, and the country so interesting, tliat I preferred walking. Native villages imbeaded in fruit trees, and pretty villas inhabited by planters or retired Dutch officials, gave this district a very pleasing and civilized aspect ; but what most attracted my attention was the system of terrace-cultivation, which is here univereally adopted, and which is, I should think, hardly equalled in the world. The 86 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. slopes of the main valley, and of its branches, were everywhere cut in terraces up to a considerable height^ and when they wound round the recesses of the hills produced all the effect of magnificent amphitheatres. Hundreds of sq^uare miles of , country are thus terraced, and convey a striking idea of the industry of the people and the antiquity of their civilization. These terraces are extended year by year as the |>opulation increases, by the inhabitants of each village working in concert under the direction of their chiefs ; and it is perhaps by this system of village culture alone, that such extensive terracing and irrigation has been rendered possible. It was probablv in- troducea by the Brahmins from India, since in those Malay countries where there is no trace of a pi^evious occupation by a civilized people, the terrace system is unknown. I first saw this mode of cultivation in Bali and Lombock, and, as I shall have to describe it in some detail there (see Chapter X.), I need say no more about it in this place, except that, owing to the finer out- lines and greater luxuriance of the country in West Java, it {)roduces there the most striking and picturesque effect. The oyer slopes of the mountains in Java possess such a delightful climate and luxuriant soil ; living is so cheap and life and property are so secure, that a considerable number of Europeans who have been engaged in Government service, settle per- manently in the country instead of returning to Europe. Tliey are scattered everywhere throughout the more accessible parts of the island, and tend greatly to the gi*adual improvement of the native population, ana to the continued peace and prosperity of the whole country. Twenty miles beyond Buitenzorg the post road passes over the Megamendong Mountain, at an elevation of about 4,500 feet. The countrv is finely mountainous, and there is much virgin forest still left upon the hills, together with some of the oldest coffee-plantations in Java, where the plants have attained almost the dimensions of forest trees. About 500 feet below the summit level of the pass there is a road -keeper's hut, half of which I hired for a fortnight, as the country looked promising for making collections. 1 almost immediately found that the productions of West Java were remarkably different from those of the eastern part of the island ; and that all the more re- markable and characteristic Javanese birds and insects were to be found here. On the very first day, my hunters obtained for me the elegant yellow and gn*een trogon (Harpactes Heinwardti), the gorgeous little minivet fiycatcner (Pencrocotus miniatus), which looks like a flame of fire as it flutters among the bushes, and the rare and cuiious black and crimson oriole (Analcipus sanguinolentus), all of them species which are found only in Java, and even seem to be confined to its western portion. In a week I obtained no less than twenty-four species of birds, which I had not found in the east of the island, and in a fort- night this number increased to foi*ty species, almost all of which ore peculiar to the Javanese fanna. Ijarge and handsome butterflies were also tolerably abundant. In dark ravines, and occasionalif on the roadside, I captured the superb Fapilio arjuna, whose wings seem powdered with grains of golden green, condensed into bands and moon-shaped spots ; while the ele- gantlj-formed Papilio ccion was sometimes to be found fluttering Sowly along the shady pathways (see figure at page 99). One day a boy brought me a butt«rfly between his Angers, perfectly unnnrt. He had caught it as it was sitting with wings erect sucking up the liquid from a muddy spot by the roadside. Many of the finest tropical butterflies have this liabit, and they are generally so intent upon their uieal that they can be easily approached and captured. It proved to be the rare and curious Chai-axes kadenii, remarkable for having on each hind wing two curved tails hke a pair of callipers. It was the only speci- men I ever saw, and is still the only representative of its kind iu English collections. In the east of Java I had suffered from tlie intense heat and drought of the dry season, which had been very inimical to 88 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. insect life. Here I had got into the other extreme of damp, wet, and cloudy weather, which was equally unfavourabla During the month which I spent in the interior of West Java, I never had a really hot fine day throughout. It rained almost every afternoon, or dense mists came down from the mountains, which equally stopped collecting, and rendered it most difficult to dry my specimens, so that I really had no chance of getting a fair sample of Javanese entomology. By far the most interesting incident in my visit to Java was a tnp to the summit of the Fangerango and Qedeh mountains ; the former an extinct volcanic cone about 10,000 feet high, the latter an active crater on a lower portion of the same mountain range. Tchipanas, about four niiles over the Megamendong Pass, is at the foot of the mountain. A small countnr house for the Governor-General and a branch of the Botanic Gardens are situated here, the keeper of which accommodated me with a bed for a night. There are many beautiful trees and shrubs planted here^ and large quantities of European vegetables are grown for the Govemor-Generars tabl& By the side^ of a little torrent that bordered the garden, quantities of orchids were cultivated, attached to the trunks of trees^ or suspended from the branches, forming an interesting open-air orchid-house. As I intended to stay two or three nights on the mountain I engaged two coolies to carry my baggage, and with my two hunters we started early the next morning. The first mile was over open country, which brought us to the forest that covers the whole mountain from a height of about 6,000 feet. The next mile or two was a tolerably steep lucent through a grand virgin forest, the trees being of great size, and the undergrowth consisting of fine herbaceous plants, tree-ferns, and shrubby vegetation. I was struck by the immense number of ferns that grew by the side of the road. Their variety seemed endless, and 1 was continually stopping to admire some new and interesting forms. I could now well understand what I had been told by the gardener, that 300 species had been found on this one mountain. A little before noon we reached the small plateau of Tjiburong at the foot of the steeper part of the mountain, where there is a plank-house for the accommodation of travellers. Close by is a picturesque waterfall and a curious cavern, which I had not time te explore. Continuing our ascent the road became narrow, rugged and steep, winding zigzac up the cone, which is covered with ir- regular masses of rock, and overgrown with a dense luxuriant but less lofty vegetation. We passed a torrent of water which is not much lower than the ooiling point, and has a most singular appearance as it foams over its rugged bed, sending up clouds of steam, and often concealed by the overhanging herbage of ferns and lycopodia, which here thrive with more luxuriance than elsewhere. At about 7,500 feet we came to another hut of open bamboos, at a place called Kandang Badak, or " Rhinoceros-field,'' which Yii.] JAVA. 89 "we were going to make our temporary abode. Here was a small clearing, with abundanoe of tree-ferns and some young planta- tions of Cinchona. As there was now a thick mist and drizzling rain, I did not attempt to go on to the summit that evening, but made two visits to it during my sta^r, as well as one to the active crater of Gedeh. This is a vast semicircular chasm, bound^ by black perpendicular walls of rock, and surroundea by miles of rugged scoria-covered slopes. The crater itself is not very deep. It exhibits patches of sulphur and variously-coloured volcamc products, and emits from several vents continual streams of smoke and vapour. The extinct cone of Pangerango was to me more interestmg. The summit is an irregular undulating plain with a low bordering ridge, and one deep lateral chasm. ' Unfor- tunately there was perpetual mist and rain either above or below us all the time I was on the mountain ; so that I never once saw the plain below, or had a glimpse of the magnificent view which in fine weather is to be obtained from its summit. Notwith- standing this drawback I enjoyed the excursion exceedingly, for it was the first time I had been high enough on a mountam near the Equator to watch the change from a tropical to a temperate flora. I will now briefly sketch these changes as I observed them in Java. On ascending the mountain, we first met with temperate forms of herbaceous plants, so low as 3,000 feet, where strawberries and violets begin to grow, but the former are tasteless and the latter have very small and pale flowers. Weedv Compositae also begin to give a European aspect to the wayside herbage. It is between 2,000 and 5,000 feet that the forests and ravines exhibit the utmost development of tropical luxuriance and beauty. The abundance of noble Tree-ferns, sometimes fifty feet high, con- tributes greatly to the general eflect, since of all the rorms of tropical vegetation they are certainly the most striking and beautiful. Bonie of the deep ravines which have been cleared of large timber are full of them from top to bottom ; and where the road crosses one of these valleys, the view of their feathery crowns, in varied positions above and below the eye, ofi'ers a spectacle of picturesque beauty never to be forgotten. The splendid foliage of the broad-leaved Musacese and Zingiberacese. with their curious and brilliant flowers, and the elegant ana varied forms of plants allied to Begonia and Melastoma, con- tinuallv attract the attention in this region. Filling ujp the spaces between the trees and larger plants, on every trunk and stump and branch, are hosts of Orcnids, Ferns and Lycopods, which wave and hang and intertwine in ever- varying complexity. At about 5,000 feet I first saw horsetails (Equisetum), verv like our own species. At 6,000 feet. Raspberries abound, and thence to the summit of the mountain there are three species of eatable Rubus. At 7,000 feet Cypresses appear, and the fot*est trees become reduced in size, and more covered with mosses and lichens. From this point upward these rapidly increase, so that W THE MALAY ABCHIPELAOO. [CBAr. the blocks of rock sod scoria that form the monntaio elope are completely bidden in a mosej v^etation. At about 8,000 feet European fomis of plants become abundant- Several species of Honeysuckle, Bt John's-wort, and Guelder-rose abound, and at about 8,000 feet we first meet with the rare and beautiful Ro^l Cowslip (Primula un- perialis), which is said to be found nowhere else in the world but on this solitary moun- tain summit. It has a tall, stout stem, sometimes more than three feet high, the root leaves are eigh- teen inches long, and it bears several whorls of cowslip-like flowen, instead of a terminal cluster only. Tiie for- est trees, gnarled and dwarfed to the dimen- sions of bushes, reach up to the very rim of the old crater, but do not extend over the hollow on its summit. Here we find a good deal of open ground, with thickets of shrub- by Artemisias and Cfnaphaliuina, like our southernwood and cudweed, but six or eight feet high: while Buttercup, Violets, Who rtle- terries. Sow- thistles, Chick weed, white and yellow Cru- cifene. Plantain, and annual grasses every- rmiiui* iHFUiAus. wliere abound. Where there are bushes and shrubs the St. Jolin's-wort and Honeysuckle grow abundantly, while the Imperial Cowslip only exhibits its elegant blossoms under the damp shade of the thickets. Mr. ^lotlcy, who visited the mountain in the dry season, and paid much attention to botany, gives the following list of genera characteristic of distant and more temperate regions :— Two species of Violet, three of Ranunculus, three of Impatiens, eight VII.] JAVA. 91 or ten of Rubus, and species of Primula, Hypericum, Swertia, Convallaria (Li]y of the Valley), Vaccinium (Cranberry), Rho- dodendron, Gnaphalium, Polygonum, Digitalis, (FoxrIovo), Lonicera (Honeysuckle), Planta^o (Ribgrass), Artemisia (Worm- woodX Lobelia, Oxalis (Wood-sorrel), Quercus (Oak), and Taxus (Yew). A few of the smaller plants (rlantago major and lan- ceolata, Sonchus oleraceus, and Artemisia vulgaris) are identical with European species. The fact of a vegetation so closely allied to that of Europe occurring on isolated mountain peaks, in an island south of tne Equator, while all the lowlands for thousands of miles around are occupied by a flora of a totally different character is very extraordinary, and has only recently received an intelligible explanation. The Peak of Teneriffe, which rises to a greater height and is much nearer to Europe, contains no such Alpine flora ; neither do the mountains of Bourbon and Mauritius. The case of the volcanic peaks of Java is therefore somewhat ex- ceptional, but there are several analogous, if not exactly parallel cases, that will enable us better to understand in what way the phenomena may possibly have been brought about. The higher peaks of the Alps, and even of the Pyrenees, contain a number of plants absolutely identical with those of Lapland, but nowhere found in the intervening plains. On the summit of the White Mountains, in the United States, every plant is identical with species growing^ in Labrador. In these cases all ordinary means of transport fail. Most of the plants have heavy seeds, which could not possibly be carried such immense distances by the wind ; ana the agency of birds in so effectually stocking these Alpine heights is equally out of the question. The difficulty was so great, that some naturalists were driven to believe that these si)ecies were all separately created twice over on these distant peaks. The determination of a recent glacial epoch, however, soon offered a much more satisfactorv solution, and one that is now universally accepted by men of science. At this i)eriod, when the mountains of Wales were full of glaciers, and the mountainous parts of Central Eurox)e, and much of America north of the great lakes, were covered with snow and ice, and had a climate resembling that of Labrador and Greenland at the present day, an Arctic flora covered all these regions. As this e])och of cold passed away, and the snowy mantle of the country, with the glaciers that descended from every mountain summit, receded up their slopes and towards the north pole, the plants receded also, always clinj^ng as now to the margins of the per- petual snow line. Thus it is that the same species are now found on the summits of the mountains of temperate Europe and America, and in the barren north-polar regions. But there is another set of facts, which help us on another step towards the case of the Javenese mountain floi*a. On the higher slopes of the Himalaya, on the tops of the mountains of Central India and of Abyssinia, a number of plants occur wliich. 92 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. though not identical with those of European mountains, belong to the same genera, and are said by botanists to represent them ; and most of these could not exist in the warm intervening plains. Mr. Darwin believed that this class of facts can be explained in the same way ; for, during the greatest severity of tne glacial epoch, temperate forms ot plants will have extended to the con* fines of the tropics, and on its departure, will have retreated up these southern mountains, as well as northward to the plains and hills of Europe. But in this case, the time elapsed, and the great change of conditions, have allowed manv of these plants to become so modified that we now consider them to be distinct species. A variety of other facts of a similar nature, have led him to believe that the depression of temperature was at one time sufficient to allow a lew north-temperate plants to cross the Equator (by the most elevated routes) and to reach the Ant- arctic regions, where they are now found. The evidence on which this belief rests, will be found in the latter part of Chapter II. of the Origin of Species ; and, accepting it for the present as an hypothesis, it enables us to account for the presence of a flora of European type on the volcanoes of Java. It will, however, naturally be objected that there is a wide expanse of sea between Java and the continent, which would have effectually prevented the immigration of temperate forms of plants during the glacial epoch. This would undoubtedly be a ratal obiection, were there not abundant evidence to snow that Java has been formerly connected with Asia, and that the union must have occurred at about the epoch required. The most striking pix>of of such a junction is, tliat the great Mam- malia of Java, the rhinocero.s, the tiger, and the Banteng or wild ox, occur also in Siam and Burmah, and these would certainly not have been introduced by man. The Javanese peacock and several other birds are also common to these two countries ; but, in the maiorit^ of cases, the species are distiact, though closely allied, indicating that a considerable time (re- quire for such modification) has elapsed since the separation, while it has not been so long as to cause an entire change. Now this exactly corresponds with the time we should require since the temperate forms of plants entered Java. These are almost all now distinct species ; but the changed conditions under which they are now forced to exist, and the probability of some of them having since died out on the continent of India, sufficiently accounts for the Javanese species being difiei*ent.^ In my more special pursuits, I had very little success upon the mountain, owing, perhaps, to the excessively unpropitious weather and the shortness of m v stay. At from 7,000 to 8,000 feet elevation, I obtained one or the most lovely of the small fruit pigeons (Ptilonopus roseicoUis), whose entire head and 1 I have now arrived at another explanation of these and analogous facts, and one whioh seems to me more complete and less improbable. (See my Island Life, chap, xxiii., and Darwinitw^ pp. 862-373.) Yiii.] SUMATRA. 98 neck are of an exquisite rosy pink colour, contrasting finely with its otherwise green plumage ; and on the verv summit, feeding on the ground among the strawberries that have been planted there, I obtained a dull-coloured thrush, with the form and habits of a starling (Turd us fumidus). Insects were almost entirely absent, owing no doubt to the extreme dampness, and I did not get a single butterfly the whole trip ; yet I feel sure that, during the dry season, a week's residence on this mountain would well repay the collector in every department of natural history. After my return to Toego, I endeavoured to find another locality to collect in, and removed to a coffee-plantation some miles to the north, and tried in succession higher and lower stations on the mountain ; but I never succeeded in obtaining insects in any abundance, and birds were far less plentiful than on the Megamendong Mountain. The weather now became more rainy than ever, and as the wet season seemed to have set in in earnest, I returned to Batavia, packed up and sent off my collections, and left by steamer on November 1st for Banca and Sumatra. CHAPTER VIIL SUMATRA. (NOVEMBER 1861 TO JANUARY 1862.) The mail steamer from Batavia to Singapore took me to Muntok (or as on Enslish maps, "Minto'% the cliief town and port of Banca. Here I stayed a day or two, till I could obtain a boat to take me across the straits, and up the river to Palem- bang. A few walks into the country showed me that it was verv hilly,' and full of granitic and laterite rocks, with a dry and stunted forest vegetation ; and I could find very few insects. A good-sized open sailing-boat took me across to the mouth of the Palembang River, where at a fishing village, a rowing-boat was hired to take me up to Palembang, a distance of nearly a hundred miles by water. Except when the wind was strong and favourable we could only proceed with the tide, and the banks of the river were generally flooded Nipa-swamps, so that the hours we were obliged to lie at anchor passed very heavily. Reaching Palembang on the 8th of November^ I was lodged by the Doctor, to whom I had brought a letter of introduction, and endeavoured to ascertain where I could find a good locality for collecting. Every one assured me that I should have to go a very long way furtlier to find any dry forest, for at this season the whole country for many miles inland was flooded. I there- 94 THE MALAY ABCHIPELAOO. [chap. fore had to stay a week at Falembang before I could determine on my future movements. The city is a large one, extending for three or four miles along a fine curve of the river, which is as wide as the Thames at Greenwich. The stream is, however, much narrowed by the houses which project into it upon piles, and within these, again, there is a row of nouses built upon great bamboo rafts, which are moored by rattan cables to the shore or to piles, and rise and fall with the tide. The whole river-front on both sides is chiefly formed of such houses, and they are mostly shops open to the water, and only raised a foot above it, so that by taking a small boat it is easy to go to market and purchase anything that is to be had in Falembang. The natives are true Malays, never building a house on drv land if they can find water to set it in, and never going anywhere on foot if they can reach the place in a boat. A considerable portion of the population ai*e Chinese and Arabs, who carrj[ on all the trade : wnile the only Europeans are the civil and military officials of the Dutch Government. The town is situated at the head of the delta of the river, and between it and the sea there is very little ground elevated above high-water mark j while for many miles further inland, the banks of the main stream and its numerous tributaries are swampy, and in the wet season flooded for a considerable dis- tance. Falembang is built on a patch of elevated ground, a few miles in extent, on the north bank of the river. At a spot about three miles from the town this rises into a little hill, the top of which is held sacred by the natives, and is shaded bv some fine trees, inhabited by a colony of squirrels, which have oecome half tame. On holding out a few crumbs of bread or any fruit, they come running down the trunk, take the morsel out of your fineers, and dart away instantly. Their tails are carried erect, and the hair, which is ringed with Kvev, yellow, and brown, radiates uniformly around them, and looks exceedingly pretty. They have somewhat of the motions of mice, coming on with little starts, and gazing intently with their large black eyes, before venturing to advance further. The manner in which Malays often obtain the confidence of wild animals is a very pleasing trait in their character, and is due in some degree to the quiet deliberation of their manners, and their love of repose rather than of action. The young are obedient to the wishes of their elders, and seem to feel none of that propensity to mischief which European boys exhibit. How long would tame squirrels continue to inhabit trees in the vicinity of an English village, even if close to the church ? They would soon be pelted and driven away, or snared and confined in a whirling cage. I have never heard of these pretty animals being tamed in this way in England, but I should think it might be easily done in any gentleman's park, and they would certainly be as pleasing and attractive as they would he uncommon. After many inquiries, I found that a day*s journey by water VIII.] SUMATRA. 95 above Palembang there commenced a military road, which ex- tended up to the mountains and even across to Bencoolen, and I determined to take this route and travel on till I found some tolerable collecting ground. By this means I should secure dry land and a good road, and avoid the rivers, which at this season are very tedious to ascend owing to the powerful currents, and very unproductive to the collector owing to most of the lands in their vicinity being under water. Leaving early in tlie morning we did not reach Lorok. the village where the road begins, till late at night. I staved there a few davs, but found that almost all the ground in the vicinity not under water was cultivated, and that the only forest was in swamps which were now inaccessible. The only bird new to me which I obtained at Lorok was the fine long-tailed parroquet (Palseomis longi- Cauda). The people here assured me that the country was just the same as this for a very long way — more than a week's journey, and they seemed hardly to have any conception of an elevated forest-clad country^ so that I began to think it would be useless going on, as the time at my disposal was too short to make it worth my while to spend much more of it in moving about. At length, however, 1- found a man who knew the country, and was more intelligent ;'and he at once told me that if I wanted forest I must go to the district of Rembang, which I found on inquiiy was about twenty-five or thirty miles off. Tlie'road is divided into regular stages, of ten or twelve miles each, and, without sending on in advance to have coolies ready, only this distance can be travelled in a day. At each station there are houses for the accommodation of passengers, with cooking-house and stables, and six or eight men always on guard. There is an established system for coolies at fixed rates, the inhabitants of the surrounding villages all taking their turn to be subject to coolie service, as well as that of guards at the station for five days at a time. This arrangement makes travel- ling very easy, and was a great convenience for me. I had a pleasant walk of ten or twelve miles in the morning, and the rest of the day could stroll about and explore the village and neighbourhooa, having a house ready to occupy without any formalities whatever. In three days I reached Moera-dua, the first village in Rembang, and finding the country dry and undulating, with a good sprinkling of forest, I determined to remain a snort time and try the neighbourhood. Just opposite the station was a small but deep river, and a good bathing-place ; and beyond the village was a nne patch of forest, through which the road passed, overshadowed hv magnificent trees, which partly tempted me to stay ; but after a fortnight I could find no good place for insects, and very few birds different from the common species of Malacca. I therefore moved on another 8ta^ to Lobo Raman, where the guard-house is situated quite by itself in the forest, nearly a mile from each of three villages, ^niis was very agreeable to me, as I could move about without THE MALAY ABCHIPELAGO. children, ana I had also a much greater variety of walks to each of the villages and the plantations around them. The villages of the Suwatran Malaya are somewhat peculiar and very picturesque. A space of some acres is surrounded with a high fence, and over this area the houses are thickly strewn without tl)e least attempt at regularitv. Tall cocoa-nut trees grow abundantly between them, and the ground is bare and smooth with the trampling of many feet. The houses are raised about six feet on posts, the best being entirely built of planks, others of bamboo. The former are alwavs more or less ornamented with carving, and have high-pitched rooia and overhanging eaves. The gable ends and all the chief posts and beams are sometimes covered with exceedingly tasteful carved work, and this is still more tlie case in the distiict of Menangkabo, further west. The floor is made of split bamboo, and is rather shaky, and there is no sign of anything we should call furni- ture. There are no lienches or chairs or stools, but merely the level floor covered with mats, on which the inmates sit or lie. The aspect of the village itself is very neat, the ground being often swept before the chief houses ; but very bad odours abound, owing to there being under every house a stinking luud-hole, formed by all waste liquids and refuse matter, poured down through tlie floor above. In most other tilings Malays are tolerably clean— in some scrupulousl.v so ; and this peculiar and nasty custom, which is almost universal, arises, I have VIII.] SUMATRA. 97 little doubt, from their having been originally a maritime and water-loving people, who built their houses on posts in the water, and only migrated gradually inland, first up the rivers and streams, and then into the drv interior. Habits which were at once so convenient and so cleanly, and which had been so lon^ practised as to become a portion of the domestic life of the nation, were of course continued when the first settlers built their houses inland ; and without a regular system of drainage, the arrangement of the villages is such, that any other system would be very inconvenient. In all these Sumatrah villages I found considerable difficulty in Retting anything to eat. It was not the season for vegetables, ana when, after much trouble, I managed to procure some yams of a curious variety, I found them hard and scarcely eatable. Fowls were very scarce ; and fruit was reduced to one of the poorest kinds of banana. The natives (during the wet season at least) live exclusively on rice, as the poorer Irish do on potatoes. A pot of rice cooked very dry and eaten with salt and red peppers, twice a day, forms their entire food during a large part of the year. This is no sign of poverty^ but is simply custom ; for their wives and children are loaded with silver arm- lets from wrist to elbow, and carry dozens of silver coins strung round their necks or suspended from their ears. Ab I had moved away from Palembang, I had found the Malav spoken by the common people less and less pure, till at length it became quite unintelligible, although the continual recurrence of many well-known words assured me it was a form of Malay, and enabled me to guess at the main subject of conversation. This district had a very bad reputation a few years ago, and travellers were frequently robbed and murdered. Fights between village and village were also of frequent occurrence, and many lives were lost, owing to disputes about boundaries or intrigues with women. Now, however, since the country has been divided into districts under ** Controlleurs," who visit every village in turn to hear complaints and settle disputes, such things are no more heard of. This is one of the numerous examples I have met with of the good effects of the Dutch Government. It exercises a strict surveillance over its most distant possessions, establishes a form of government well adapted to the character of the x)eople, reforms abuses, punishes crimes, and makes itself everywhere respected by the native population. iiobo Baman is a central point of the east end of Sumatra, being about a hundred and twenty miles from the sea to the east, north, and west. The surface is undulating, with no mountaips or even hills, and there is no rock, the soil being generally a red friable clay. Numbers of small streams and rivers intersect the country, and it is pretty equally divided between open clearings and patches of lorest^ both virgin and second growth, with abundance of fruit trees ; and there is no H S3 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [CBAt. lack ot paths to get about in uny direotion. Altogether it is tho very country tliat would promise most for a naturalist, and I feel sure that at a more favourable time ot year it would prove exceedingly rich ; but it was now the rainy season, when, in the verv best of localities, insects are always scarce, and thei-e being no fruit on the trees there was also a scarcity of birds. During a month's collecting, I added only three or four new species to my list of birds, altJiough I obtained very tine spccmiens of many which were rare and interesting. In butterflies I was rather more successful, obtaining several fine species quite new to me, and a considerable number of very rare and beautiful insects. I will give here some account of two species of butter- flies, which, though very common in collections, present us with Iieculiarities of the highest interest The flrst is the handsome Papilio memnon, a. splendid butterfly of a deei> black colour, dotted over with lines and groups of scales of^a clear ashy blue. Its wings arc five inches in expanse and the hind wings are rounded, with scalloped edges. This viti.] SUMATBA. » applies to the males ; but the femftlea are very different, and vary BO much tliat they were once supposed to form several distinct species. They may be divided into two groups^those wliich resemble tlie male in shape, and those which differ entirely from him in the outline of the wings. The firat vary much in colour, being oft«n nearly white with dusky yellow and red markings, but such differences often occur in butterflies. The second group are much more extraordinary, and would never be supposed to be the same insect, since the lirnd wings are length- eoea out into large spoon-shaped tails, no rudiment of wliica is ever to be perceived in the males or in the ordinary form of females. These tailed females are never of the dark and blue- glossed tints which prevail in the male and often occur in the females of the same form, but are invariably ornamented with stripee and patches of white or bufl^ occupying the larger part of tne surface of the hind wings. This peculiarity of colouring led me to discover that this extraordinary female closely re- sembles (when flying) anotlier butterfly of the same genus but of a different group (Papilio coon) : and that we have here a case of mimicry similar to those HO well illustrated and explained by Mr. Bates.' That the resemblance is not accidental is sufficiently proved by the fact, that in the North of India, where Papilio coon is replaced by an allied form (Papilio Doubledayi) having red spots in place of yellow, a closely -allied species or variety of Papilio memnon (P. androgeus), has the tailed female also red spotted. The use and reason of this resemblanceappears to be, that the butterflies imitated belong to a section of the 1 Trui. Lino. Soc. vol. ivUL f. tti ; Natarallit m Olc ^muimi, ml, 1. p. 280. 100 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. genuB Papilio which from some cause or other are not attacked y birds, and by so closely resembling these in form and colour the female of Memnon and its ally also escape persecution. Two other species of this same section (Papilio antiphus and Papilio polyphontes) are so closely imitated by two female forms of Papilio theseus (which comes in the same section with Memnon), that they completely deceived the Dutch entomologist De Haan^ and he accordingly classed them as the same species ! But the most curious fact connected with these distinct forms is, that they are both the offspring of either form. A single brood of larvfld were bred in Java by a Dutch entomologist, and produced males as well as tailed and tailless females, and there IS everj^ reason to believe that this is always the case, and that forms intermediate in character never occur. To illustrate these phenomena, let us suppose a roamine Englishman in some remote island to have two wives — one a black -haired, red-skinned Indian, the other a woollv-headed, sooty-skinned negress ; and tliat in- stead of the chilaren being mulattoes of brown or dusky tints, minglinff the characteristics of each parent in varying degre^ all tne boys should be as fair -skinned and blue-eyed as their father, while the girls should altogether resemble their mothers. This would be thought strange enoujp^h, but the case of these butterflies is yet more extraordinary, for each mother is capable not only of producing male offspring like the father, and female like herself, but also other females like her fellow wife, and altogether different from herself ! The other species to which I have to direct attention is the Kallima paralekta, a butterfly of the same family group as our Purple Emperor, and of about the same size or larger. Its upper surface is of a rich purple, variously tinged with ash colour, and across the fore win^s there is a broad bar of deep orange, so that when on the wmg it is very conspicuous. This species was • hot uncommon in dry woods and thickets, and I often en- deavoured to capture it without success, for after flying a short distance it would enter a bush among dry or dead leaves, and however carefully I crept up to the spot I could never discover it till it would suddenly start out again and then disappear in a similar place. At length I was fortunate enough to see the exact spot where the butterfly settled, and though llost sight of it for some time, I at length discovered that it was close before mj' eyes, but that in its position of repose it so closely resembled a dead leaf attached to a twig as almost certainly to deceive the eye even when gazing full upon it. I captured several specimens on the wing, and was able rully to understand the way in which this wonderful resemblance is produced. "" The end of the upper wings terminates in a fine point, just as the leaves of many tropical shrubs and trees are pointed, while the lower wings are somewhat more obtuse, and are lengthened out into a short thick tail. Between these two points there runs a dark curved line exactly representing the miorib of a leaf, and from this radiate on each side a few oblique marks which well imitate the lateral veins. These nmrks are more clearly seen on the outer portion of the bacse of the wings, and on the inner side towards the middle and apex, and they are produced Ipr strife and markings which are very common in allied species, but which are here modified and strengthened so as to imitate more exactly the venation of a leaf The tint of the under surface 102 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. varies much, but it is always some ashy brown or reddish colour, which matches with those of dead leaves. The habit of the species is always to rest on a twig and among dead or dry leaves, and in this position with the wings closelv pressed to- gether, their outline is exactly that of a moderately -sized leaf, slightly curved or shrivelled. The tail of the hind wings forms a perfect stalk, and touches the stick while the insect is sup- ported by the middle pair of legs, which are not noticed among the twigs and fibres that surround it. The head and antennae are drawn back between the wings so as to be quite concealed, and there is a little notch hollowed out at the very base of tlie wings, which allows the head to be retracted sufficiently. All these varied details combine to produce a disguise that is so complete and marvellous as to astonish every one who observes it ; and the habits of the insects are such as to utilize all these peculiarities, and render them available in such a manner as to remove all doubt of the purpose of this singular case of mimicry, which is undoubtedly a protection to the insect. Its strong ana swift flight is sufficient to save it from its enemies when on the wing, but if it were equally conspicuous when at rest it could not long escape extinction, owing to the attacks of the in- sectivorous birds and reptiles that abound in the tropical forests. A very closely allied species, Kallima inachis, inhabits India, where it is very common, and specimens are sent in every collection from the Himalayas. On examining a number of these, it will be seen that no two arealike, but all the variations correspond to those of dead leaves. Every tint of yellow, ash, brown, and red is found here, and in many specimens there occur i)atches and spots formed of small black dots, so closely resembling the way in which minute fungi grow on leaves that it is almost impossible at first not to believe that fungi have grown on the butterflies themselves ! If such an extraordinary adaptation as this stood alone, it would be very difficult to offer any explanation of it ; but although it is perhaps the most perfect case of protective imita- tion known, there are hundreds of similar resemblances in nature, and from these it is possible to deduce a general theory of the manner in which they have been slowly brought about The principal of variation and that of " natural selection," or survival of the fittest, as elaborated by Mr. Darwin in his celebrated Origin of Species, offers the foundation for such a theory ; and I have myself endeavoured to apply it to all the .chief cases of imitation in an article publishea in the Westminster' Review for 1867, entitled "Mimicry, and other Protective Re- semblances among Animals," to which any reader is referred who wishes to know more about this subject.^ In Sumatra, monkeys are very abundant, and at Lobo Raman they used to frequent the trees which overhang the guard-house, 1 This article forms tlie tliird chapter of my Natural 8eleet}on and Tropical Nature. VIIL] SUMATRA. 103 and give me a fine opportunity of observing tlieir gambols. Two species of Semnopitnecus were most plentiful — monkeys of a slender form, with very long tails. Not being much shot at they are rather bold, and remain quite unconcerned when natives alone are present ; but when I came out to look at them, they would stare for a minute or two and then make ofE They take tremendous leaps from the branches of one tree to those of another a little lower, and it is very amusing when one strong leader takes a bold jump, to see the others following with more or less trepidation ; and it often happens that one or two of the last seem ^uite unable to make up their minds to leap till the rest are disappearing, when, as it in desperation at being left alone, they throw themselves frantically into the air, and often go crashing through the slender branches and fall to the ground. A very curious ape, the Siamang, was also rather abundant, but it is much less bold than the monkeys, keeping to the virgin forests and avoiding villages. This species is allied to the little long-armed apes of the genus Hylo twites, but is considerably larger, and diners from them by having the two first fingers of the feet united together, nearly to the end. whence its Latin name, Siamanga svndactyla. It moves much more slowly than the active Hylobates, keeping lower down in trees, and not indulging in such tremendous leaps; but it is still very active, anjT by means of its immense long arms, five feet six inches across in an adult about three feet high, can swing itself along among the trees at a great rate. 1 purchased a small one, which had oeen caught by the natives and tied up so tightly as to hurt it. It was rather savage at first, and tried to bite ; but when we had re- leased it and given it two poles under the verandah to hang upon, securing it by a short cord running along the pole with a ring so that it could move easily, it became more contented, and would swing itself about with great rapidity. It ate almost any kind of fruit and rice, and I was in hopes to have brought it to England but it died just before I started. It took a dislike to me at first which I tried to get over by feeding it constantly myself. One day, however, it bit me so sharply while giving it food, that I lost patience and gave it rather a severe ueating, which I regret tea afterwards, as from that time it disliked me more than ever. It would allow my Mala^ boys to play with it, and for hours together would swing by its arms from pole to pole and on to the rafters of the verandah, with so much ease and rapidity that it was a constant source of amusement to us. When 1 returned to Singapore it attracted gi-e^it attention, as no one had seen a Siamang alive before, althougn it is not uncommon in some parts of the Malay peninsula. As the Orang-utan is niown to inhabit Sumatra^ and was in fact first discovered there, I made many inquiries about it ; but none of the natives had ever heard of such an animal, nor could I find any of the Dutch ofiicials who knew anything about it. We may conclude, tlierefore, that it does not inhabit the great 104 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. forest plains in the east of Sumatra where one would naturally expect to find it, but is probably confined to a limited region in the north-west — a part of the island entirely in tlie hands of native rulers. The other great Mammalia of Sumatra, the elephant and the rhinoceros, are more widely distributed ; but the former is much more scarce than it was a few yeai*s ago, and seems to retire rapidly before the spread of cultivation. About Lobo Eaman tusKs and bones are occasionally found in the forest, but the living animal is now never seen. The rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sumatranus) still abounds, and I continually saw its tracts and its dung, and once disturbed one feeding, which went crashing away through the jungle, only permitting me a momentary glimpse of it through tlie dense underwood. I ob- tained a tolerably perfect cranium, and a number of teeth, which were picked up by tlie natives. Another curious animal, which I had met with in Singapore and in Borneo, but which was more abundant here, is the Galeopithecus, or flying lemur. This creature has a broad membrane extending ail round its bodv to tlie extremities of the toes, and to the point of the rather long tail. This enables it to p&ss obliquely through the air from one tree to another. It is sluggish m its motions, at least by day, going up a tree by short runs of a few feet, and then stopping a monient as if the action was difficult. It rests during the day clinging to the trunks of trees, where its olive or brown fur, mottled with irregular wliitish spots and blotches, resembles closely the colour of mottled bark, and no doubt helps to protect it. Once, in a bright twilight. I saw one of these animals run up a trunk in a rather open place, and then glide obliquely through the air to another tree, on which it alighted near its base, and immediately began to ascend. I paced the distance from the one tree to the other, and found it to be seventy yards ; and the amount of descent I estimated at not more than thirty-five or forty feet, or less than one in five. This I think proves that the animal must have some power of guiding itself throueh the air, otherwise in so long a distance it would have little chance of alighting exactly upon the trunk. Like the Cuscus of the Moluccas, the Galeopithecus feeds chiefly on leaves, and possesses a very voluminous stomach and long convoluted intestines. The brain is very small, and the animal possesses such remarkable tenacity of life, that it is exceedingly difficult to kill it by any ordinary means. The tail is prehensile, and is probably made use of as an additional support while feeding, it is said to have only a single young one at a time, and my own observation confirms this statement, for I once shot a female, with a very small blind and naked little creature clinging closely to its breast, which was auite bare and much wrinkled, reminding me of the young of Marsupials, to which it seemed to form a transition. On the back, ana extending over the limbs and membrane, the fur of these animals is short Chinchilli I returned to Palembang by water, and while staying a day at a village while a boat was l>eing made watertiglit, I had the good fortune to obtain a male, female, and younglrird of one of the large hornbills. I had sent my hunters to sTioot, and while I WHS at breakfast they returned, bringing nie a fine large male, 106 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. of the Buceros bicomis, which one of them assured me he had shot while feeding the female, which was shut up in a hole in a tree. I had often read of this curious habit, and immediately returned to the place, accompanied by several of the natives. After crossing a stream and a bog, we found a large tree lean- ing over some water, and on its lower side, at a height of about twenty feet, appeared a small hole, and what looked like a quantitv of mud, which I was assurea had been used in stopping up the large hole. After a while we heard the harsh crv of a bird inside, and could see the white extremity of its beak put out. I offered a rupee to any one who would go up and get out the bird, with the egg or young one : but they all declared it was too difficult, and they w^ere afraia to try. I therefore very reluctantly came away. In about an hour afterwards, much to my surprise, a tremendous loud hoarse screaming was heard and the bird was bix)ught me, together with a young one which had been found in the hole. This was a most curious object, as large as a pigeon, but without a particle of plumage on anjr part of it. It was exceedingly plump and soft, and with a semi- transparent skin, so that it looked more like a bag of jelly, with head and feet stuck on, than like a real bird. The extraordinary habit of the male, in plastering up the female with her egg, and feeding her during the whole time of incubation, and till the young one is fledged, is common to several of the large hombills, and is one of those strange facts in natui'al history which are " stranger than fiction." CHAPTER IX. NATURAL HISTORY OP THE INDO-MALAY ISLANDS. In the first chapter of this work I have stated generally the reasons which lead us to conclude that the large islands in the western portion of the Archipelago — Java, Sumatra,, and Borneo— as well as the Malay peninsula and the Philippine islands, have been recently separated from the continent of Asia. I now propose to give a sketch of the Natural History of these, which I term the Indo-Malay islands, and to show how far it supports this view, and how much information it is able to give us of the antiquity and origin of the separate islands. The flora of the Archipelago is at present so imperfectly known, and I have myself paid so little attention to it, that I cannot draw from it many facts of importance. The Malayan type of vegetation is however a very important one ; and Sir Joseph Hooker states, in his Flora Jndica^ that it spreads over all the moister and more equable parts of India, ana that many plants found in Ceylon, the Himalayas, the Nilghiri, and Khasia mountains are identical with those of Java and the Malay ix.] NATURAL HISTORY OF THE INDOMALAY ISLANDS, 107 peninBuIft. Among the more characteristic forms of thb flora are the rattans — climbing palms of the genus Calamus, and a great variety of tall as well as stemlesa palms. Orchids. Araceaa, ZingiberacesB, and fems are especially abundant, and the genus Qrammatophyllum— a gigantic epiphytal orchid, whose clusters of leaves and flower-Btems are ten or twelve feet long — is peculiar to it. Here, too, is the domain of the wonderful pitcher jrfante (Nepenthace»X which are only represented else- „ , . ., n, Madagascar, the Se^Tohelles, Celebes, and the Moluccas. Those celebrated fruits, the Mangosteen and the Durian, are nfttivcs of this region, and will hardly grow out of the Archipelago. The mountain plants of Java have already been alluded to as showing a former con- nexion with the continent'of Asia; and a atill more extra- ordinary and more ancient connexion with Australia has been indicated by Mr. Low's collections from tlie summit of Kini- balou, the loftiest mountain in Borneo. Plants have much greater facilities for passing across arms of theaea than animals. Tlie lighter seeds are easily carried by the winds, and many of them are specially adapt«d to be so 108 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. carried. Others can float a long time unhurt in the water, and are drifted by winds and currents to distant shores. Pigeons, and other fruit-eating birds, are also the means of distributing plants, since the seeds readily germinate after passing through their bodies. It thus happens that plants whico grow on shores and lowlands have a wide distribution, and it requires an extensive knowled^ of the species of each island to determine the relations of their floras with any approach to accuracy. At present we have no such complete knowledge of the botany of the several islands of the Archipelago ; and it is only bv such striking phenomena as the occurrence of northern and even European genera on the summits of the Javanese mountains that we can prove the former connection of that island with the Asiatic continent. With land animals, however, the case is very diflerent. Their means of passing a wide expanse of sea are far more restricted. Their distribution has been more accurately studied, and we ])ossess a much more complete knowledge of sucn groups as mammals and birds in most of the islands, than we do of the plants. It is these two classes which will supply us with most or our facts as to the geographical distribution oi organized beings in this region. The number of Mammalia known to inhabit the Indo-Malay region is very considerable, probably 250 sx)ecies. With the exception of the bats, none of these have any regular means of passing arms of the sea many miles in extent, and a consideration of their distribution must therefore greatly assist us in determin- ing whether these islands have ever been connected with each other or with the continent since the epoch of existing species. The Quadrumana or monkey tribe form one of the most characteristic features of this region. Twenty-four distinct species are known to inhabit it, and these are distributed with tolerable uniformity over the islands, nine being found in Java, ten in the Malay peninsula, eleven in Sumatra, and thirteen in Borneo. The great man -like Orang-utans are found only in Sumatra and Borneo ; the curious biamang (next to them in size) in Sumatra and Malacca ; the long-nosed monkey only in Borneo ; while every island has representatives of the Gibbons or long-armed apes, and of monkeys. The lemur-like animals, Nycticebus, Tarsius, and Galeopithecus, are found in all the islands. Seven species found on the Malay peninsula extend also into Sumatra, four into Borneo, and three into Java • while two range into Siam and Burmah, and one into North India. With the exception of the Orang-utan, the Siamang, the Tarsius spectrum, and the Qaleopithecus, all the Malavan genera of Quadrumana are represented in India by closely allied species, although, owing to the limited range of most of these animals, so few are absolutely identical. Of Camivora, thirty -three species are known from the Indo- Malay region, of which about eight are found also in Burmah IX.] NATURAL HISTORY OF THE INDOMALAY ISLANDS. 109 and India. Amone these are the tiger, leopard, a tiffer-cat, civet, and otter ; while out of the twentv genera of Malayan CamiyorsL thirteen are represented in Inoia by more or less closely allied species. As an example, the curious Malayan glutton (Helictis oriehtalis') is represented in Northern India by a closely allied species, Helictis nipalensis. The hoofed animals are twenty-two in number, of which about seven extend into Burmah and India. All the deer are of peculiar species, except two. which range from Malacca into India. Of the cattle, one Indian species reaches Malacca, while the Bos sondaicus of Java and Borneo is also found in Siam and Burmah. A ^oat-like animal is found in Sumatra which has its representative in India ; while the two-homed rhinoceros of Sumatra and the sinjo^le-homed species of Java, long supposed to be peculiar to these islands, are now both ascertained to exist in Burmah, Peeu, and Moulmein. The elei)hant of Sumatra, Borneo, and Malacca is now considered to be identical with that of Ceylon and India In all other groups of Mammalia the same general phenomena recur. A few species are identical with those of India. A much larger number are closely allied or representative forms ; while there are always a small number of peculiar genera, consisting of animals unlike those found in any other part of the world. There are about fifty bats, of which less than one-fourth are Indian 8i)ecies ; thirty -four Rodents (squirrels, rats, &c.), of which six or eight only are Indian ; ana ten Insectivora, with one exception peculiar to the Malay region. The squirrels are very abundant and characteristic, only two species out of twenty -five extending into Siam and Burmah. TneTupai£& are curious insect-eaters, which closely resemble squirrels, and are almost confined to the Malay islands, as are the small feather- tailed Ptilocerus lowii of Borneo, and the curious long-snouted and naked-tailed Gymnurus rafflesii. As the Malay peninsula is a part of the continent of Asia, the question of the former union of the islands to the mainland will be best elucidated by studying the species which are found in the former district, and also in some of the islands. Now, if we entirely leave out of consideration the bats, which have the power of flighty there are still forty -eight species of mammals common to the Malay peninsula and the three large islands. Among these are seven Quadrumana (apes, monKeys, and lemurs), animals which pass their whole existence in forests, which never swim, and wnich would be quite unable to traverse a single mile of sea; nineteen Camivora, some of which no doubt might cross by swimming, but we cannot suppose so large a number to have passed in this way across a strait which, except at one i)ointw is from thirty to fifty miles wide ; and five hoofed animals, including the tapir, two species of rhinoceros, and an elephant. Besides these there are thirteen Rodents and four Insectivora, including a shrew-mouse and six squirrels, whose no THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. unaided passage over twenty miles of sea is even more inconceivable than that of the larger animals. But when we come to the cases of the same species inhabiting two of the more widely separated islands, the difficulty is much increased. Borneo is distant nearly 150 miles from Biliton, which is about fifty miles from Banca, and this fifteen from Sumatra, yet there are no less than thirty-six species of mammals common to Borneo and Sumatra. Java again is more than 250 miles from Borneo, yet these two islands have twenty-two species in common, including monkeys, lemurs, wild oxen, squirrels, and shrews. These racts seem to render it absolutely certain tnat there has been at some former period a connexion between all these islands and the mainland, and the fact that most of the animals common to two or more of them show little or no variation, but are often absolutely indentical, indicates that the separation must have been recent in a geological sense ; that is, not earlier than the Newer Pliocene epocn, at which time land animals began to assimilate closely with those now existing. Even the bats furnish an additional argument, if one were needed, to show that the islands could not have been peopled from each other and from the continent without some former connexion. For if such had been the mode of stocking them with animals, it is quite certain that creatures which can fiy long distances would be the first to spread from island to island, and thus produce an almost perfect uniformity of species over the whole region. But no such uniformity exists, and the bats of each island are almost, if not quite^ as distinct as the other mammals. For example, sixteen species are known in Borneo, and of these ten are found in Java and five in Sumatra, a pro- portion about the same as that of the Rodents, which have no direct means of migration. We learn from this fact, that the seas which separate the islands from each other are wide enough to prevent the passage even of flying animals, and that we must look to the same causes as having lea to the present distribution of both gnx>ups. The only sufficient cause we can imagine is the former connexion of all the islands with the continent, and such a change ia in perfect harmony with what we know of the earth's past history, and is rendered probable by the remarkable fact that a rise of only three hundred feet would convert the wide seas that separate them into an immense winding valley or plain about three hundred miles wide and twelve nundred long. It may, perhaps, be thought that birds which possess the power of night in so pre-eminent a degree, would not be limited in their range by arms of the sea, and would thus affi>rd few in- dications of the former union or separation of the islands they inhabit. This, however, is not the case. A very larse number of birds appear to be as strictly limited by watery barriers as are quadrupeds ; and as they have been so much more atten- IX.] NATURAL HISTOKY OF THE INDO-MALAY ISLANDS. Ill tively collected, we have more complete materials to work upon, and are enabled to deduce from them still more definite and satisfactory results. Some groups, however, such as the aquatic birds, the waders, and the birds of prey, are great wanderers : other groups are little known except to ornithologists. I shall therefore refer chiefly to a few of the best known and most re- markable families of birds, as a sample of the conclusions furnished by the entire class. The birds of the Indo-Malav region have a close resemblance to those of India ; for though a very large proportion of the species are quite distinct, there are only alx>ut fifteen peculiar ffenera, and not a single family group confined to the former district. If, however, we compare the islands with the Burmese, Siames^ and Malayan countries, we shall find still less difference, and shall be convinced that all are closely united by the bond ot a former union. In such well-known families as the wood- peckers, parrots, trogons, barbets, king^shers, pigeons, and pheasants, we find some identical species spreading over all India, and as far as Java and Borneo, while a very large propor- tion are common to Sunmtra and the Malay peninsula. The force of these facts can only be appreciated when we come to treat of the islands of the Austro-Malav region, and show how similar barriers have entirely prevented the passage of birds from one island to another, so that out of at least three hundred and fifty land birds inhabiting Java and Borneo, not more than ten liave passed eastward into Celebes. Yet the straits of Macassar are not nearly so wide as the Java sea, and at least a hundred species are common to Borneo and Java. I will now give two examples to show how a knowledge of the distribution of animals may reveal unsuspected facts in the past history of the eartli. At the eastern extremity of Sumatra, and separated from it by a strait about fifteen miles wide, is the small rocky island of Banca, celebrated for its tin mines. One of the Dutch residents there sent some collections of birds and animals to Leyden, and among them were found several species distinct from those of the adjacent coast of Sumatra. One of these was a squirrel (Sciurus bangkanus), closely allied to three other species inhabiting respjectively tlie M^lay peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo, but quite as aistinct from them all as tliey are from each other. There were also two new ground thrushes of the genus Pitta, closely allied to, but quite distinct from, two other species inhabiting both Sumatra and Borneo, and which did not perceptibly differ in these large and widely separated islands. This is just as if the Isle of Man possessed a peculiar species of thrush and blackbird, distinct from the birds which are common to England and Ireland. These curious facts would indicate that Banca may have ex- isted as a distinct island even longer than Sumatra and Borneo, and there are some geological and geographical facts which render this not so improbable as it would at first seem to be. 112 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. Although on the map Banca appears so close to Sumatra, this does not arise from its having been recently separated from it ; for the adjacent district of Palembang is new land, being a great alluvial swamp formed by torrents from the mountains a nundred miles distant. Bajica, on the other hand, agrees with Malacca. Singapore, and the intervening island of Lingen, in being formed of granite and laterite ; and these have all most likely once formed an extension of the Malay peninsula. As the rivers of Borneo and Sumatra have been for ages filling up the inter- vening sea, we may be sure that its depth has recently been greater, and it is very probable that those large islands were never directly connected with each other except through the Malay peninsula. At that neriod the same species of squirrel and Pitta may have inhabitea all these countries ; but when the subterranean disturbances occurred which led to the elevation of the volcanoes of Sumatra^ the small island of Banca may have been separated first, ana its productions being thus isolated might be gradually modified before the senaration of the larger islands had been completed. As the southern part of Sumatra extended eastward and formed the narrow straits of Banca, many birds and insects and some Mammalia would cross from one to the other, and thus produce a general similarity of pro- ductions, while a few of the older inhabitants remained, to reveal by their distinct forms their different origin. Unless we suppose some such changes in physical geography to have occurred, the presence of peculiar species of birds and mam- mals in such an island as Banca is a hopeless puzzle ; and I think I have shown that the changes required are by no means so improbable as a mere glance at the map would lead us to suppose. For our next example let us take the great islands of Sumatra and Java. These approach so closely together, and the chain of volcanoes that runs through them gives such an air of unity to the two, that the idea of tiieir having been recently dissevered is immediately suggested. The natives of Java, however, go further than this ; for they actually have a tradition of the catastrophe which broke them asunder, and ^x its date at not much more than a thousand years ago. It becomes interesting, therefore, to see what support is given to this view by the comparison of their animal productions. The Mammalia have not been collected with sufficient com- pleteness in both islands to make a general comparison of much value, and so many species have been obtained only as live specimens in captivity, that their locality has often been errone- ously given — tne island in which thej^ were obtained being substituted for that from which they originally came. Taking into consideration only those whose distribution is more accu- rately known, we learn that Sumatra is, in a zoological sense, more nearly related to Borneo than it is to Java. The great man-like apes, the elephant, the tapir, and the Malay bear, are IX.] NATURAL HISTORY OF THE INDO-MALAY ISLANDS. 118 nil common to the two former countries, while they are absent from the latter. Of the three long-tailed monkeys (Semno- pithecus) inhabiting Sumatra, one extends into Borneo, but the two species of Java are )x>th peculiar to it. So also the ffreat Malay deer (Rusa equina), and the small Tragulus kanchiL are common to Sumatra and Borneo, but do not extend into Java, where they are replaced by Tragulus javanicus. The tiger, it is true, is found in Sumatra and Java, but not in Borneo. But as this animal is known to swim well, it may have found its way across the Straits of Sunda, or it may have inhabited Java before it was separated from the main land, and from some unknown cause have ceased to exist in Borneo. In Ornithology there is a little uncertainty owing to the birds of Java and Sumatra being much better known than those of Borneo ; but the ancient separation of Java as an island is well exhibited by the large number of its species which are not found in any of the other islands. It possesses no less than seven pigeons peculiar to itself, while Sumatra has only one. Of its two parrots one extends into Borneo, but neither into Sumatra. Of the fifteen species of woodpeckers inhabiting Sumatra only four reach Java, while eight of them are found in Borneo and twelve in the Malay peninsula. The two Trogons found in Java are peculiar to it, while of those inhabiting Sumatra at least two extend to Malacca and one to Borneo. There are a very large number of birds, such as the sreat Argus pheasant, the fire-backed and ocellated pheasants, the ci*ested partridge (RoU- ulus coronatus), the small Malacca parrot (Psittinus incertus), the great helmeted hornbill (Buceroturus galeatus), the phea- sant ground-cuckoo (Carpococcyx radiatus), the rose-crest«d bee-eater (Nyctiornis amicta), the great gaper (Cory don suma- tranus), and the green-crested gaper (Calyptomena viridis), and many others, which are connuon to Malacca, Sumatra, and Borneo, but are entirely absent from Java. On the other hand we have the peacock, the green jungle cock, two blue ground thrushes (Arrenga cyanea and Myophonus flavirostris), the fine pink-headed dove (Ptilonopus porpliyreus), three broad-tailed ground pigeons (Macropygia), and many other interesting birds, which are found nowhere in the Archipelago out of Java. Insects furnish us with similar facts wherever sufficient data are to be had, but owing to the abundant collections that ha\'e been made in Java, an unfair preponderance may be given to that island. This does not, however, seem to be the case with the true Papilionidae or swallow-tailed buttei'flies, whose large size and gorgeous colouring has led to their being collected moi'e frequently than other insects. Twenty-seven species are known from Java, twenty -nine from Borneo, and only twenty -one from Sumatra. Four are entirely confined to Java, while only two are peculiar to Borneo and one to Sumatra. The isolation of Java will, however, l^e best shown by grouping the islands in I 114 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. pairs, and indicating tlie number of species common to each pair. Thus :— - Borneo . Sumatra Borneo . Java . . Sumatra Java . . 21 ^^j ^^^ \ 20 species common to both islands. 27 do. /- 29 do. , „rt , 1 0 do. do. 21 J"- ■- do. Uo. 27 do! }" Making some allowance for our imperfect knowledge of the Sumatran species, we see that Java is more isolated from the two larger islands than they are from each other, thus entirely confirming the results given by the distribution of birds and Mammalia, and rendering it almost certain that the last-named island was the first to be completely sei^arated from the Asiatic continent, and that the native tradition of its having been recently separated from Sumatra is entirely without foundation. We are now enabled to trace out with some probability the course of events. Beginning at the time when the whole of the Java sea, the Gulf of Siam, and the Straits of Malacca were dry land, forming with Borneo, Sumatra, and Java, a vast southern prolongation of the Asiatic continent, the first move- ment would be the sinking down of the Java sea and the Straits of Sunda, consequent on the activity of the Javanese volcanoes along the southern extremity of the land, and leading to the complete separation of that island. As the volcanic belt of Java and Sumatra increased in activity, more and more of the land was submerged, till first Borneo, and afterwards Sumatra, became entirely severed. Since the epoch of the first disturb- ance, several distinct elevations and depressions may have taken place, and the islands may have been more than once joined with each other or with the mainland, and again separated. Successive waves of immigration may thus have modified their animal productions, and led to those anomalies in distribution which are so difficult to account for by any single operation of elevation or submergence. The form of Borneo, consisting of radiating mountain cliains with intervening broad alluvial valleys, suggests the idea that it has once been much more submerged than it is at present (when it would have some- what resembled Celebes or Gilolo in outline), and has been increased to its present dimensions by the filling up of its gulfs with sedimentarv matter, assisted by gradual elevation oi th^ land. Sumatra has also been evidently much increased in size by the formation of alluvial plains along its north-eastern coasts. There is one peculiarity in the productions of Java that is very puzzling — the occurrence of several species or groups characteristic of tlie Siamese countries or of India, but which do not occur in Borneo or Sumatra. Among Mammals the X.] BALI AND LOMBOCK. 116 Rhinoceros javanicus is the most striking example, for a disHnct species is found in Borneo and Sumatra, while the Javanese species occurs in Burmah and even in Bengal. Among birds, the small ground dove, Qeopelia striata, and the curious oronze- coloured magpie, Crypsirhina varians are common to Java and Siam ; while there are in Java species of Pteruthius. Arrenga, Myiophonus, Zoothera, Sturnopastor, and Estrelda, the nearest allies of which are found in various parts of India, while nothing like them is known to inhabit Borneo or Sumatra. Such a curious phenomenon as this can only be understood by supposing that, subsequent to the separation of Java, Borneo became almost entirely submerged, ana on its re-elevation was for a time connected with the Malay peninsula and Sumatra, but not with Java or Siam. Any geologist who knows how strata have been contorted and tilted up, and how elevations and depressions must often have occurrea alternately, not once or twice only, but scores and even hundreds of times, will have no difficulty in admitting that such chanees as have been here indicated are not in themselves improbaole. The existence of extensive coal-beds in Borneo and Sumatra, of such recent origin that the leaves which abound in their shales are scarcely dis- tinguishable from those of the forests which now cover the country, proves that such changes of level actually did take place ; and it is a matter of much interest, both to the geologist and to the philosophical naturalist, to be able to form some con- ception of the order of those changes, and to understand how they may have resulted in the actual distribution of animal life in these countries; — a distribution which often presents phe- nomena so strange and contradictory, that without taking such changes into consideration we are unable even to imagine how they could have been brought about. CHAPTER X. BALI AND LOMBOCK. (JUNE, JULY, 1866.) The islands of Bali and Lombock, situated at the east end of Java, are particularly interesting. They are the only islands of the whole Archipelago in which the Hindoo religion still maintains itself — and they form the extreme points of the two great zoological divisions of the Eastern hemisphere ; for although so similar in external app^earance and in all physical features, they differ greatly in their natural productions. It was after having spent two years in Borneo, Malacca, and Singapore, that I made a somewhat involuntary visit to these islands on my way to Macassar. Had I been able to obtain a I 2 116 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [cuap. passage direct to that place from Singapore, I should probably never have gone near them, and should nave missed some of the most important discoveries of my whole ezi>edition to the East It was on the 13th of June, 1856, after a twenty days' passage from Singapore in the Kembang l>jepoon (Rose of Japan), a schooner belonging to a Chinese merchant, manned by a Javanese crew, and commanded by an English captain, that we cast anchor in the dangerous roadstead of Bileling on the north side of the island of Bali. Qoing on shore with the captain and the Chinese supercargo, I was at once introduced to a novel and interesting scene. We went first to the house of the Chinese Bandar, or chief merehant, where we found a number of natives, well dressed, and all conspicuously armed with krisses, displaying their large handles of ivory or gold, or beautifully grained and polished wood. The Chinamen had given up their national costume and adopted the Malay dress, and could then hardly be distinguished from the natives of the island — ^an indication of the close affinity of the Malayan and Mongolian races. Under the thick shade of some mango>trees close by the house, several women-merehants were selling cotton goods ; for here the women trade and work for the benefit of their husbands, a custom which Mahometan Malays never adopt. Fruit, tea, cakes, and sweetmeats were brought us : many questions were asked about our business and the state of trade in Singapore, and we then took a walk to look at tlie village. It was a very dull and dreary place ; a collection of narrow lanes bounded by high mud walls, enclosing bamboo houses, into some of which we entered and were very kindly received. During the two days that we remained here, I walked out into the surrounding country to catch insects, shoot birds, and spy out the nakedness or fertility of the land. I was both astonished and delighted ; for as my visit to Java was some years later, I had never beheld so beautiful and well -cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightly undulating plain extends from the sea- coast about ten or twelve miles iiiland, where it is bounded by a fine range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, marked out by dense clumps of cocoa-nut palms, tamarind and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction ; while between them extend luxuriant rice-grounas, watered by an elaborate system of irrigation that would be the pride of the best cultivated parts of Europe. The whole surface of the country is divided into irregular patches, following the undulations of the g^uiid, from many acres to a few perches in extent, each of which is itself perfectly level, but stands a few inches or several feet above or below those adjacent to it. Every one of these patches can be flooded or drained at will, by means of a system of ditches and small channels, into which are diverted the whole of the streams that descend from the mountains. Every patch now bore crops in various stages of growth, some almost ready aff] BALI AND LOMBOCK. 117 for cutting, and all in the most flourishing condition and of the most exquisite green tints. The siaes of tne lanes and bridle roads were often edged with prickly Cacti and a leafless Euphorbia, but the country oeing so highly cultivated there was not much room for indigenous vegetation, except upon the sea-beach. We saw plenty of the fine race of domestic cattle descended from the Bos sondaicus of Java, driven by half-naked boys, or tethered in pasture-grounds. They are large and handsome animals, of a light brown colour, wiUi white legs, and a conspicuous oval patch behind of the same colour. Wild cattle of the same race are said to be still found in the mountains. In so well -cultivated a countrv it was not to be expected that I could do much in natural history, and my ignorance of how important a locality this was for the elucidation of the geographical distribution of animals, caused me to neglect obtaining some specimens which I never met with again. One of these was a weaver bird with a bright yellow head, which built its bottle shaped nest.s by dozens on some trees near the beach. It was the Ploceus hypoxanthus, a native of Java ; and here at the extreme limits of its range westerly. I shot and preserved specimens of a wagtail-thrush, an oriole, and some starlings, all species found in Java, and some of them peculiar to that island. 1 also obtained some beautiful butterflies, richlv marked with black and orange on a white ground, and which were the most abundant insects in the county lanes. Among these was a new species, which I have named Pieris tamar. Leaving Bileling, a pleasant sail of two days brought us to Ampanam in the island of Lombock, where I proposed to remain till I could obtain a passage to Macassar. We enjoyed superb views of the twin volcanoes of Bali and Lombock, each about eight thousand feet high, which form magnificent objects at sun- rise and sunset, when they rise out of the mists and clouds that surround their bases glowing with the rich and chang^g tints of these the most charming moments in a tropical day. The bay or roadstead of Ampanam is extensive, and being at this season Weltered from the prevalent south-easterly winds, was as smooth as a lake. The beach of black volcanic sand is very steep, and there is at all times a heavy surf upon it, which during spring- tides increases to such an extent that it is often impossible for boats to land, and many serious accidents have occurred. Where we lay anchored, about a quarter of a mile from the shore, not the slightest swell was perceptible, but on approaching nearer undulations began, wliich rapidly increased, so as to form rollers which toppled over on to the beacii at regular intervals with a noise like thunder. Sometimes this surf increases suddenly during perfect calms, to as great a force and fury as when a gale of wind is blowing;, beating to pieces all boats that may not have been hauled sufliciently high upon the beach, and carrying away incautious natives. This violent surf is probably in some way dependent on the swell of the great southern ocean, 118 THE MALAY AKCHIPELAGO. [chAp. and the violent currents that flow through the Straits of Lombock. These are so uncertain that vessels prex)aring to anchor in the bay are sometimes suddenly swept away into the straits, and are not able to get back again for a fortnight ! What seamen call the " ripples '' are also very violent in the straits, the sea appearing to boil and foam and dance like the rapids below a cataract ; vessels are swept about helpless, and small ones are occasionally . swamped in the finest weather and under the brightest skies. I felt considerably relieved when all my boxes and myself had passed in safety through the devouring surf, which the natives look upon with some pride, saying that " their sea is always hungry, and eats up everything it can catch.'' I was kindly received by Mr. Carter, an Engl isliman, who is one of the Bandars or licensea traders of the port, who offered me hospitality and every assistance during my stay. His house, store-houses and offices were in a yard surrounded by a tall bamboo fence, and were entirely constructed of bamboo with a thatch of grass, the only available building materials. Even these were now very scarce, owing to the great consumption in rebuilding the place since the great fire some months beiore, which in an hour or two had destroyed every building in the town. The next day I went to see Mr. S., another merchant to whom I had brought letters of introduction, and who lived about seven miles off. Mr. Carter kindly lent me a horse, and I was accom- panied by a young Dutch gentleman residing at Ampanam, who offered to be my guide. We first passed through the towns and suburbs along a straight road bordered by mud walls and a fine avenue of lofty trees ; then through rice fields irrigated in the same manner as I had seen them at Bilelin^, and afterwards over sandy pastures near the sea, and occasionally along the beach itself. Mr. S. received us kindly, and offered me a resi- dence at his house should I think the neighbourhood favourable for my pursuits. After an early breakfast we went out to ex- plore, taking guns and insect-net. We reached some low hills which seemed to offer the most favourable ground, passing over swamps, sandy flats overgrown with course sedges, and through pastures and cultivated grounds, finding however very little in the way of either birds or insects. On our way we passed one or two human skeletons, enclosed within a small bamboo fence, with the clothes, pillow, mat, and betel-box of the unfortunate individual, — who nad been either murdered or executed. Return- ing to the house, we found a Balinese chief and his followers on a visit. Those of higher rank sat on chairs, the others squatted on the floor. The chief very coolly asked for beer and brandy, and helped himself and his followers, apparently more out of curiosity than anything else as regards the beer, for it seemed very distasteful to them, while they drank tne brandy in tumblers with much relish. Eetuming to Ampanam, I devoted mvself for some days to shooting the birds of the neighbourhood. The fine fig-trees of X.] BALI AND LOMBOCK. 119 the avenu^ where a market was held, were tenanted by superb orioles (Oriolus broderpii) of a rich orange colour, and peculiar to this island and the adjacent ones of Sumbawa «nd Flores. All round the town were abundance of the curious Tropi- dorhynchus timoriensis, allied to the Friar bird of Australia. They are here called " Quaich-quaich," from their strange loud voice, which seems to repeat these words in various and not unmelodious intonations. Everv day boys were to be seen walking along the roads and bv the hedges and ditches, catching dragon flies with bird-lime. They carry a slender stick, with a few twigs at the end well anointed, so that the least touch captures the insect, whose wings are pulled off before it is consi^ed to a small basket. The dragon flies are so abundant at the time of the rice-flowering that thousands are soon caught in this way. The bodies are fried in oil with onions and preserved shrimps, or sometimes alone and are considered a great delicacy. In Borneo, Celebes, and many other islands, the larvae of bees and wasps are eaten, either alive as pulled out of the cells, or fried like the dragon- flies. In the Moluccas the grubs of the palm-beetle (Calandra) are regularly brought to market in bamboos, and sold for food ; and many of the great homed Lamellicom beetles are slightly roasted on the embers and eaten whenever met with. The superabundance of insect life is therefore turned to some account by these islanders. Finding that birds were not very numerous, and hearing much of Labuan Tring at the southern extremity of the bay, where there was said to be much uncultivated country and plenty of birds as well as deer and wild pigs, I determined to go there with my two servants, Ali, the Malay lad from Borneo, and Manuel, a Portuguese of Malacca accustomed to bird-skinning. I hired a native boat with outriggers, to take us with our small quantity of luggage, and a day s rowing and tracking along the shore brought us to the place. I had a note of introduction to an Amboynese Malay, and obtained the use of part of his house to live and work in. His name was " Inchi Daud " (Mr. David), and he was very civil ; but his accommodations were limited, and he could only give me part of his reception-room. This was the front part of a bamboo house (reached by a ladder of about six rounds very wide apart), and having a beautiful view over the bay. However, I soon made what arrangements were possible and then set to work. The country around was pretty and novel tq me, consisting of abrupt volcanic hills enclosing flat valleys or open plains. The hills were covered with a dense scrubby bush of bamboos and prickly trees and shrubs, the plains were adorned with hundreds of noble palm-trees, and in many places with a luxuriant shrubby vegetation. Birds were plentiful and very interesting, and I now saw for the first time many Australian forms that are quite absent from the islands westward. Small white cockatoos were 120 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [ohap. abundant and their loud screams, conspicuous white colour, and pretty yellow crests, rendered them a verv impK)rtant feature in the landscape. This is the most westerly point on the globe where any of the family are to be found. Some small honey- suckers of the genus Ptilotis, and the strange mound-maker (MegapodiuB gouldii), are also here first met with on the traveller's journey eastward. The last-mentioned bird requires a fuller notica The Megapodidfls are a small family of birds found only in Australia and the surrounding islands, but extending as far as the Philippines and North-west Borneo. They are allied to the gallinaceous birds, but differ from these and from all others in never sitting upon their eggs, which they bury in sand, earth, or rubbish, ana leave to be Hatched by the heat of the sun or of fermentation. They are all characterized bj' verv large feet and long curved claws, and most of the species of Megaix>dius rake and scratch togetlier all kinds of rubbish, dead leaves, sticks, stones, earth, rotten wood, dbc, till they form a large mound, often six feet high and twelve feet across, in the middle of which they bury their eggs. The natives can tell by the condition of these mounds whether they contain eggs or not ; and tiiey rob them whenever they can, as the brick-red eggs (as large as those of a swan) are considered a great delicacy. A number of birds are said to join in making these mounds and lay their eggs together, so that sometimes forty or fifty may be found. The mounds are to be met with here and there in dense thickets, and are ^eat puzzles to strangers, who cannot understand who can possibly have heaped together cartloads of rubbish in such out- of-the-way places ; and when they inquire of the natives they are but little wiser, for it almost always appears to them the wildest romance to be told that it is all done by birds. The species found in Lombock is about the size of a small hen, and entirely of dark olive and brown tints. It is a miscellaneous feeder, devouring fallen fruits, earth-worms, snails, and centipedes, but the flesh is white and well -flavoured when properly cooked. Tne large green pigeons were still better eating, and were much more plentiful. These fine birds, exceeding our largest tame pigeons in siz^ abounded on the palm trees, which now bore huge bunches of fruits — mere hard globular nuts, about an inch in diameter, and covered with a dry green skin and a very small portion of pulp. Looking at the pigeon's bill and head, it would seem impossible that it could swallow such large masses, or that it could obtain any nourishment from them ; yet I often shot these birds with several palm fruits in the crop, which generally burst when they fell to the ground. I obtained here eight species of Kingfishers, among which was a very beautiful new one^ named by Mr. Qould, Halcyon f ulgidus. It was found always in thickets, awav from water, and seemed to feed on snails and insects picked up from the ground after the manner X.] BALI AND LOMBOCK. 121 of the great Laughing Jackass of Australia. The beautiful little violet and orange species (Ceyx rufidorsa) is found in similar situations, and darts rapidly along like a flame of fire. Here also I first met with tne pretty Australian Bee-eater (Merops ornatus). This elegant little bird sits on twigs in open places, gazing eagerly around, and darting off at intervals to seize some insect which it sees nying near ; returning afterwards to the same twig to swallow it. Its long, sharp, curved bill, the two long narrow feathers in its tail, its beautiful green plumage varied with rich brown and black and vivid blue on the throaty render it one of the most graceful and interesting objects a naturalist can see for the first time. Of all the birds of Lombock, however, I sought most after the beautiful ground thrushes (Pitta concinna), and always thought myself lucky if I obtained one. They were found only in the dry plains denselv covered with thickets, and carx)eted at this season with dead leaves. They were so shy that it was very difficult to get a shot at them, and it was only after a ^ood deal of practice that I discovered now to do it. The habit of these birds is to hop about on the ffround, picking up insects, and on the least alarm to run into uie densest thicket or take a flight close along the ground. At intervals they utter a peculiar cry of two notes which when once heard is easily recognized, and they can also be heard hopping along among the dry leaves. My practice was, therefore, to walk cautiously along the narrow pathways with which the country abounded, and on detecting any sign of a Pitta's vicinity to stand motionless and give a gentle whistle occasionally, imitating the notes as near as possible. After half an hour's waiting I was often rewarded oy seeing the pretty bird hopping along in the thicket. Then I would perhaps lose sight of it a^n, till, having my gun raised and ready for a shot, a second glimpse would enable me to secure my prize, and admire its soft puffy plumage and lovely colours. The upper part is rich soft green, the head jet black with a stripe of blue and brown over each eye ; at the base of the tail ana on the shoulders are bands of bright silvery blue, and the under side is delicate buff with a stripe of rich crimson, bordered with black on the belly. Beautiful grass-green doves, litUe crimson and black flower-peckers, large Uack cuckoos, metallic king-crows, golden orioles, and the fine jungle-cocks — the origin of all our domestic breeds of poultry— were among the birds that chiefly atti'acted my attention during our stay at Labuan Tring. The most characteristic feature of tne jungle wasitstiiominess. The shrubs were thorny ; the creepers were thorny ; the bamboos even were thorny. Everything grew zigzag and lagged, and in an inextricable l^gle, so that to get through the bush with gun or net or even spectacles was generally not to be done, and insect-catching in such localities was out of the question. It was in such places that the Pittas often lurked, and when shot it became a matter of some difficulty to secure the bird, and 122 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. seldom without a heavy payment of pricks and scratches and torn clothes could the prize be won. The dry volcanic soil and arid climate seem favourable to the production of such stunted and thorny vegetation, for the natives assured me that this was nothing to the thorns and prickles of Sumbawa, whose surface still bears the covering of volcanic ashes thrown out forty years ago by the terrible eruption of Tomboro. Among the shrubs and trees that are not prickly the Apocynacese were most abundant, their bilobed fruits of varied form and colour, and often of most tempting appearance, hanging everywhere by the waysides as if to invite to destruction the weary traveller who ' may be unaware of their poisonous properties. One in particular with a smooth shining skin of a golden orange colour, rivals in appearance the golden apples of the Hesperides, and has g^eat attractions for many bims, from the wnite cockatoos to the little yellow Zosterops, who feast on the crimson seeds which are displayed when the fruit bursts open. The great x)alm called **Gubbong" by the natives, a species of Corypha, is the most striking feature of the plains, where it grows by thousands and appears in three different states— in leaf, in flower and fruit, or dead. It has a loftv cylindrical stem about a hundred feet high and two to three leet in diameter ; the leaves are large and fan- shaped, and fall off when the tree flowers, which it does only once in its life in a huge terminal spike, on which are produced masses of a smooth round fruit of a green colour and about an inch in diameter. When these ripen and fall the tree dies, and remains standing a year or two before it falls. Trees in leaf only are far more numerous than those in flower and fruit, while dead trees are scattered here and there among them. The trees in fruit are the resort of the great green fruit pigeons, which have been already mentioned. Troops of monkeys (Macacus cvnomolgus) may often be seen occupying a tree, showering down the fruit in great profusion, chattering when disturbed, and making an enormous rustling as they scamper off among the dead palm leaves ; while the pigeons have a loud booming voice more like the roar of a wild beast than the note of a bird. My collecting operations here were carried on under more than usual difficulties. One small room had to serve for eating, sleeping and working, for storehouse and dissecting-room ; in it were no shelves, cupboards, chairs or tables ; ants swarmed in every part of it, and dogs, cats and fowls entered it at pleasure. Besides this it was the parlour and reception-room of my host, and I was obliged to consult his convenience and that of the numerous guests who visited us. My principal piece of furniture was a box, which served me as a dining table, a seat while skin- ning birds, and as the receptacle of the birds when skinned and dri^. To keep them free from ants we borrowed, with some difficulty, an old bench, the four legs of which being placed in cocoa-nut shells filled with water kept us tolerably free from x] BALI AND LOMBOCK. 123 these pests. The box and the bench were however literally the only places where anything could be put away, and they were generally well occupied by two insect boxes and about a hundred birds' skins in process of drying. It may therefore be easily conceived that when anything bulky or out of the common way was collected, the question " Where is it to be put 1 " was rather a difficult one to answer. All animal substances moreover re- quire some time to dry thoroughly, emit a very disagreeable odour while doing so, and are particularly attractive to ants, flies, dogs, rats, cats, and other vermin, calling for especial cautions and constant supervision, which under the circumstances above described were impossible. My readers may now partially understand why a travelling naturalist of limited means, like myself, does so much less than is expected or than he would himself wish to do. It would be interesting to preserve skeletons of many birds and animals, reptiles and fishes in spirits, skins of the larger animals, remark- able fruits and woods, and the most curious articles of manu- facture and commerce ; but it will be seen that under, the circumstances I have just described it would have been im- possible to add these to the collections which were my own more especial favourites. When travelling by boat the diffi- culties are as great or greater, and they are not diminished when the journey is by land. It was absolutely necessary therefore to limit my collections to certain groups to which I could devote constant personal attention, ana thus secure from destruction or decay what had been often obtained by much labour and pains. While Manuel sat skinning his birds of an afternoon, generally surrounded by a little crowd of Malays and Sassaks (as the in- digenes of Lombock are termed), he often held forth to them with the air of a teacher, and was listened to with profound attention. He was very fond of discoursing on the " special providences " of which he believed he was daily the suoject. Allah has been merciful to-day " he would say — for although a Christian he adopted the Mahometan mode of speech — " and has given us some very fine birds ; we can do nothing without Him." Then one of the Malays would reply, " To be sure, birds are like mankind ; they have their appointed time to die ; when that time oomes nothing can save them, and if it has not come you cannot kill them." A murmur of assent follows this senti- ment, and cries of " Butul ! Butul ! " (Right, right} Then Manuel would tell a long story of one of his unsuccessful hunts : — how he saw some fine bird and followed it a long way, ana then missed it, and again found it, and shot two or uiree times at it, but could never hit it. " Ah ! " says an old Malay. " its time was not come, and so it was impossible for you to kill it." A doctrine this which is very consoling to the bad marksman, and which quite accounts for the facts, but which is yet somehow not altogether satisfactory. 124 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. It is universally believed in Lombock that some men have the power to turn themselves into crocodiles, which they do for the sake of devouring their enemies, and many strange tales are told of such transformations. I was, therefore, rather surprised one evening to hear the following curious fact stated, ana as it was not contradicted by any of the persons present, I am in- clined to accept it provisionally, as a contribution to the Natural History of the island. A Bomean Malay who had been for many years resident here, said to Manuel, ^' One thing is strange in this country — the scarcity of ghosts.'' "How so?" asked Manuel. "Why, you know," said the Malay, "that in our countries to the westward, if a man dies or is killed, we dare not pass near the place at night, for all sorts of noises are heard which show that ghosts are skbout. But here there are numbers of men killed, ana their bodies lie unburied in the fields and by the roadside, and yet you can walk by them at night and never hear or see anything at all, which is not the case in our country, as you know very well." " Certainly I do," said Manuel ; and so it was settled that ghosts were verv scarce, if not altogether un- known in Lombock. I would observe, however, that as the evidence is purely negative we should be wanting in scientific caution if we accepted this fact as sufficientlv Avell establish^. One evening I heard Manuel, AH, and a Malay man whisper- ing earnestly together outside the door, and could distinguish various allusions to " krisses," throat-cutting, heads, &c., re the conquest of the island by the Balinese. Soon after i)assing Mataram the country besan gradually to rise in gentle undulations, swelling occasionally into low hills towards the two mountainous tracts m the northern and southern parts of the island. It was now that I first obtained an adequate idea of one of the most wonderful systems of cultivation in the world, equalling all that is related of Chinese industry, and as far as I Know surpassing in the labour that has been bestowed upon it any tract of equal extent in the most civilized countries of Europe. I rode through this strange garden utterly amazed, and hardly able to realize the fact, that in this remote and little known island, from which all Europeans except a few traders, at the port are jealously excluded, many hundreds of square miles of irregularlv undulating country have been so skilfully terraced and levelled, and so permeated by artificial channels, that every portion of it can be irrigated and dried at pleasure. According as the slope of the ground is more or less rapid, each terraced plot consists in some places of many acres, in otliers of a few square yards. We saw them in every state of cultivation ; some in stubble, some being ploughed, some with rice-crops in various stages of growth. Here were luxuriant patches of tobacco; there, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, yams, beans or Indian-corn, varied the scene. In some places the ditches were dry, in others little streams crossed our road and were distri- buted over lands about to be sown or planted. The banks which bordered every terrace rose regularly in horizontal lines above each other ; sometimes rounding an abrupt knoll and looking like a fortification, or sweeping round some deep hollow and forming on a gigantic scale tiie seats of an amphitheatre. Every brook and rivulet had been diverted from ite bed. and instead of flowing along the lowest ground were to be lound crossing our road half-way up an ascent, yet bordered by ancient trees and moss-grown stones so as to have all the appearance of a natural channel, and bearing testimony to the remote i)eriod at which the work liad been done. As we advanced further into the country, the scene was diversified by abrupt rocky hills, by steep ravines, and by clumps of bamboos ana palm-trees near houses or villages ; while in the distance the fine range of XI.] LOMBOCK : CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLK 127 mountains of which Lombock peak, eight thousand feet high, is the culminating ix>int, formed a fit background to a view scarcely to be surpassed either in human interest or picturesque beauty. Along the first part of our road we passed nundreds of women carrying rice, fruit, and vegetables to market : and further on an almost uninterrupted line of horses laden witli rice in bags or in the ear. on their way to the jwrt of Ampanam. At every few miles along the road, seated under shady trees or sliffht sheds, were sellers of sugar-cane, palm-wine, cooked rice^ salted eggs, and fried plantains, with a few other native delicacies. At these stalls a heafty meal may be made for a penny, but we contented ourselves with drinking some sweet palm-wine, a most delicious beverage in the heat of the day. . After having travelled about twenty miles we reached a higher and drier region, where, water being scarce, cultivation was confined to the little flats boraering the streams. Here the country was as beautiful as before, but of a different character ; consisting of undulating downs of short turf interspersed with fine clumps of trees and bushes, sometimes the woodland, sometimes the open ground predominating. We only passed through one small patch of true forest, where we were shaded by lofty trees and saw around us a dark and dense vegetation, highly agreeable after the heat and glare of the open country. At length, about an hour after noon, we reached our destina- tion— the village of Coupang, situated nearly in the centre of the island — ^and entered the outer court of a house belonging to one of the chiefs with whom my friend Mr. Ross had a slight ac- quaintance. Here we were requested to seat ourselv^ under an open shed with a raised floor of bamboo, a place used to receive visitors and hold audiences. Turning our horses to graze on the luxuriant grass of the courtyaixl, we waited till the great man's Malay interpreter appeared, who inquired our business and in- formed us that the rumbuckle (chief) was at the liaiah's house, but would soon be back. As we had not yet breakfasted, we begged he would ^et us something to eat, which he promised to do as soon as possible. It was however about two hours before anything appeared, when a small tray was brought containing two saucers of rice, four small fried fish, and a few vegetables. Having made as good a breakfast as we could, we strolled about the village, and returning, amused ourselves by conversation, with a number of men and boys who gathered round us ; and by exchanging glances and smiles with a number of women and f iris who peeped at us through half -open doors and other crevices. 'wo little boys named Mousa and Isa (Moses and Jesus) were great friends with . us, and an impudent little rascal called Kachang (a bean) made us all laugh by his mimicry and antics. At length about four o'clock the rumbuckle made his ap- pearance, and we informed him of our desire to stay with him a few days, to shoot birds and see the country. At this he seemed somewhat disturbed, and asked if we had brought a letter from 128 TH£ MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. the Anak Affong (Son of Heaven), which is tlie title of the Rajah of Lombock. This we had not done, thinking it quite un- necessary; and he then abruptly told us that he must go and speak to his Rajah, to see if we could stay. Hours passed away, night came and he did not return. I began to think we were suspected of some evil designs, for the Pumbuckle was evidently afraid of getting himself into trouble. He is a Sassak prince, and, though a supporter of the present Rajah, is related to some of the heads of a conspiracy which was quelled a few years since. About five o'clock a pack-horse bearing my guns*and clothes arrived, with my men Ali and Manuel, who had come on foot. The sun set, and it soon became dark, and we got rather hungry as we sat wearily under the shed and no one came. Still hour after hour we waited, till about nine o'clock, the Pumbuckle, the Rajah, some priests, and a number of their followers arrived and took their seats around us. We shook hands, and for some minutes there was a dead silence. Then the Rajah asked what we wanted ; to which Mr. Ross replied by endeavouring to make them understand who we were, and why we had come, and that we had no sinister intentions whatever ; and that we had not brought a letter from the " Anak Acong," merely because we had thought it quite unnecessary. A long conversation in the Bali language then took place, and Questions were asked about my guns, and what powder I had, ana whether I used shot or bullets ; also what the oirds were for, and how I preserved them, and what was done with them in England. Each of my answers and explanations was followed by a low and serious conversation which we could not understand, but the purport of which we could guess. They were evidently Quite puzzled, and did not believe a word we had told them. They then inquired if we were really English, and not Dutch ; and although we strongly asserted our nationality, they did not seem to believe us. After about an hour, however, they brought us some supper (which was the same as the breakfast, but without the fish), and after it some very weak coffee and pumpkins boiled with sugar. Having discussed this, a second conference took place ; questions were again asked, and the answers again conmiented on. Between whiles lighter topics were discussed. My spectacles (concave glasses) were tried in succession by three or four old men, who could not make out why they could not see through them, and the fact no doubt was another item of suspicion against me. My beard, too was the subject of some admiration, and many questions were asked about personal peculiarities which it is not the custom to allude to in European society. At length, about one in the morning, the whole party rose to depart, and, after conversing some time at the gate, all went away. We now begged the interpreter, who with a few boys and men remained about us, to show us a place to sleep in, at which he seemed very much surprised, saying he thought we were very well XI.] LOMBOCK : CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE. 129 accommodated where we were. It was quite chilly, and we were very thinly clad and had brought no blankets, but all we could eet after another hour's talk was a native mat and pillow, and a few old curtains to hang round three sides of the open shed and protect us a liibtle from the cold breeze. We passed tiie rest ot the night very uncomfortably, and determined to return in the morning and not submit any longer to such shabby treatment. We rose at daybreak, but it was near an hour before the in- terpreter made his appearance. We then asked to have some coffee and to see the rumbuckle, as we wanted a horse for Ali, who was lame, and wished to bid him adieu. The man looked puzzled at such unheard-of demands and vanishexl into the inner court, locking the door behind him and leaving us again to our meditations. An hour passed and no one came, so I ordered the horses to be saddled and the pack-horse to be loaded, and pre- pared to start. Just then the interpreter came up on horseback, and looked aghast at our preparations. *' Where is the Pum- buckle 1 " we asked. " Gone to the Rajah's,^' said he. " We are going/' said I. " Oh ! pray don't," saicf he ; " wait a little ; they are having a consultation, and some priests are coming to see you, and a chief is going off to Mataram to ask the permission of tlie Anak A^ong for you to stay." Tliis settled the matter. More talk, more delay, and another eight or ten hours* consultation were not to be endured ; so we started at once, the poor in- terpreter almost weeping at our obstinacy and hurry, and assuring us — "the Pumbuckle would be very sorry, and the Rajah would be very sorry, and if we would but wait all would be right." I gave Ali my horse, and started on foot, but he afterwards mounted behind Mr. Ross's groom, and we got home very well, though rather hot and tired. At Mataram we called at the house of Gusti Gadioca, one of the princes of Lombock, who was a friend of Mr. Carter's, and who had promised to show me the guns made by native work- men. Two guns were e.xhibited, one six the other seven feet long, and of a proportionably large bore. The barrels were twisted and well finished, though not so finely worked as oura. The stock was well made, and extended to the end of the barrel. Silver and gold ornament was inlaid over most of the surface, but the locks were taken from Enfflish muskets. The Gusti as- sured me, however, that the Rajah had a man who made locks and also rifled barrels. The workshop where these guns were made and the tool used were next shown us, and were very re- markable. An open shed with a couple of small mud forges were the cliief objects visitje. The bellows consisted of two bamboo cylinders, with pitsons worked by hand. They move very easily, having a loose stuffing of feathers thickly set round the piston so as to act as a valve, and produce a regular blast. Both cylinders communicate with the same nozzle, one piston rising while the other falls. An oblong piece of iron on the ground was K 180 THK MALAY ABCHIPELAOO. Ichap. the anvil, and a small vice was £xed on the projecting root of a tree outaide. These, with a few files and hammers, were literally the only tools with which an old man makes these fine guns, £nisliing them himself from the rough iron and wood. I was anxious to know how they bored diese long barrels, which seemed perfectly true and aro said to shoot aoinirably ; and, OD asking the Gusti, received the enigmatical answer : "We use a basket full of Btoues." Being utterly unable to imagine what he could mean, I asked if I could see how they did it, and one of the dozen little boys around us wus sent to fetch the basket. He soon returned with this most extraordinary boring- machine, the mode of using which the Gusti then ex- plained to me. It was eimply a strong bamboo bosket, through XI.] LOMBOCK : CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE. 131 the bottom of which was stuck upriglit a pole about three feet long, kept in its place by a few sticks tiea across the top with rattans. The bottom of the pole has an iron ring, and a hole in which four-cornered borers of hardened iron can be fitted. The barrel to be bored is buried upright in the ground, the borer is inserted into it, the top of the stick or vertical shaft is held by a cross-piece of bamboo with a hole in it, and the basket is filled with stones to get the required weight. Two boys turn the bamboo i*ound. The barrels ai*e made in pieces of about eighteen inches long, which are first boi'ed small, and then welded together upon a sti-aight iron rod. The whole barrel is then worked with borers of gradually increasing size, and in three days the boring is finisned. The whole matter was ex- j)lained in such a straightforward manner that I have no doubt zhe process described to me was that actually used ; although, when examining one of the handsome, well-finished, and service- able guns, it was very hard to realize the fact, that they had been made from first to last with tools hardly sufficient for an Enfflish blacksmith to make a horse-shoe. The day after we returned from our excursion, the Rajah came to Ampanam to a feast g^ven bv Gusti Gsidioca, who resides there ; and soon after his arrival we went to have an audience. We found him in a large courtyard sitting on a mat under a shady tree ; and all his followers, to the number of three or four hundred, squatting on tiie ground in a large circle round him. He wore a sarong or Malay petticoat and a green jacket. He was a man about thirty-five years of age, and of a pleasing countenance, with some appearance of intellect combined with indecision. We bowed, anci took our seats on the gi'ound near some chiefs we were acquainted with, for while the liajah sits no one can stand or sit higher. He first inquired who I was, and what I was doing in Lombock, and then requested to see some of my birds. I accordingly sent for one ot my boxes of bird-skins and one of insects, which he examined carefully, and seemed much surprised that they could be so well preserved. We then had a little conversation about Europe and the Russian war, in which all natives take an interest. Having heard much of a country-seat of the Rajah's called Gunong Sari, I took the opportunity to ask permission to visit it and shoot a few birds there, which he immediately granted. I then thanked him and wc took our leave. An hour after, his son came to visit Mr. Carter accompanied by about a hundred followers, who all sat on the ground while he came into the open shed where Manuel was skinning birds. After some time he went into the house, had a bed arranged to sleep a little, then drank some wine, and after an hour or two had dinner brought him from the Gust is house, which he ate with eight of the principal priests and princes. He pronounced a blessing over the rice and commencea eating first, after which the rest fell to.- They rolled up balls of rice in their hands, K 2 182 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. dipped them in the gravy and swallowed them rapidly, with little pieces of meat and fowl cooked in a variety ot ways. A boy fanned the young Hajah while eating. He was a youth of about fifteen, and had already three wives. All wore the kris, or Malay crooked dagger, on the beauty and value of which they greatly pride themselves. A companion of the Rajah's had one with a golden handle, in which were set twenty -eight diamonds and several other jewels. He said it had cost him 700/. The sheaths are of ornamental wood and ivory, often covered on one side with gold. The blades are beautifully veined with white metal worked into the iron, and they are kept very carefully. Every man without exception carries a kris, stuck behind into the large waist-cloth which all wear, and it is generally the most valuable piece of property he possesses. A few aays afterwards our long- talked -of excursion to Gunong Sari took place. Our party was increased by the captain and supercargo of a Hamburg ship loading with rice for China. We were mounted on a very miscellaneous lot of LomlK>ck ponies, which we had some difficulty in supplying witii the necessary saddles, iS:c. ; and most of us had to patch up our girths, bridles, or stirrup-leathers, as best we could. We passed through Mataram, where we were joined by our friend Gusti Gadioca, mounted on a handsome black horse, and riding as all the natives do, without saddle or stirrups, using only a handsome saddle-cloth and very ornamental bridle. About three miles further, along pleasant byways, brought us to the place. We entered through a rather handsome brick gateway supported by hideous Hindoo deities in stone. Within was an enclosure with two square fish-ponds and some fine trees ; then another gate- way through which we entered into a park. On the right was a brick house, built somewhat in the Hindoo style, and placed on a high terrace or platform ; on the left a large fish-pond, supplied by a little rivulet which entered it out of the mouth of a gigantic crocodile well executed in brick and stone. The edges of the pond were bricked, and in the centre rose a fan- tastic and picturesque pavilion ornamented with grotesque statues. The pond was well stocked with tine fisli, which come every morning to be fed at the sound of a wooden gong which is hung near lor the purpose. On striking it a number of fish immediately came out of the nuisses of weed with which the pond abounds, and followed us along the margin expecting food. At the same time some deer came out of an adjacent wood, which, from being seldom shot at and regularly fed, are almost tame. The jungle and woods which surrounded the park appearing to abound in birds, I went to shoot a few, and was rewarded by getting several specimens of the fine new kingfisher, Halcyon fulgidus, and the curious and handsome ground thrush, Zoothera andromeda. The former belies its name by not fre- quenting water or feeding on fish. It lives constantly in low damp thickets picking up ground insects, centipedes, and smaU XI.] LOMBOCK : CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE. 183 mollusca. Altogether I was much pleased with my visit to this place, and it gave me a higher opinion than I had before enter- tained of the taste of these people, although the style of the buildings and of the sculpture is very much inferior to those of the magnificent ruins in Java. I must now say a few words about the character, manners, and customs of these interesting people. Tne aborigines of Lombock are termed Sassaks. They are a Malay race nardly differing in appearance from the people of Malacca or Borneo. They are Manometans and form the bulk of the population. The ruling classes, on the other hand, are natives of the adjacent island of Bali, and are of tlie Brahminical religion. The government is an absolute monarchy, but it seems to be conducted with more wisdom and moderation than is usual in Malay countries. The father of the present Kajah conquered the island, and tlie people seem now quite reconciled to their new rulers, who do not interfere with their religion, and prob- ably do not tax them any heavier than did the native chiefs they have supplanted. The laws now in force in Lombock are very severe. Theft is punished by death. Mr. Carter informed me that a man once stole a metal coffee-pot from his house. He was caught, the pot restored, and the man brought to Mr. Carter to punish as he thought fit. All the natives recommended Mr. Carter to have him ** krissed " on the spot ; " for if you don't," » said they, " he will rob you again." Mr. Carter, however, let him off, with a warning, that if he ever came inside his premises again he would certainly be shot. A few months afterwards the same man stole a horse from Mr. Carter. The horse was re- covered, but the thief was not caught. It is an established rule, that any one found in a house after dark, unless ^vith the owner's knowledge, may be stabbed, his body thrown out into the street or upon the beach, and no questions will be asked. The men are exceedingly jealous and very strict with their wives. A married woman may not accept a cigar or a sirih leaf from a stranger underpain of death. I was informed that some years ago one of the English traders had a Balinese woman of good family living with hira-^the connexion being considered quite honourable by the natives. During some festival this girl offended against the law by accepting a flower or some such trifle from another man. This was reported to the Kajah (to some of whose wives the girl was related), and he immediately sent to the Englishman's house, ordering him to give the woman up as she must be " krissed." In vain he begged and prayed, and offered to pay any fine the Hajah might impose, and finally refused to give her up unless he was forced to do so. This the Rajah did not wish to resort to, as he no doubt thought he was acting as much for the Englishman's honour as for his own ; so he appeared to let the matter drop. But some time afterwards, he sent one of his followers to the house, who beckoned the girl to the door, and then saying, "The Kajah sends you this," 184 THE MALAY AECHIPELAGO. [chap. stabbed her to the heart. More serious infidelity is punished still more cruelly, the woman and her paramour being tied back to back and thrown into the sea, where some large ero<-x>dile8 are always on the watch to devour the bodies. One such execu- tion took place while I was at Ampanam, but I took a long walk into the country to he out of the way till it Mas all over, thus missing the opportunity of having n horrible narrative to enliven my somewhat tedious story. One morning, as we were sitting at breakfast, Mr. Carter's servant informed us that there was an " Amok " in tho village — in other words, that a man was " running a muck." Orders were immediately gi^'en to shut and fasten the gates of our en- closure ; but hearing nothing for some time, we went out, and found tnere had been a false alarm, owing to a slave having run away, declaring he would " amok," because his master wanted to sell him. A short time l^efore, a man had been killed at a gaming-table, because, having lost half a dollar more than he possessed, he was going to "amok." Another had killed or wounded seventeen people before he could be destroyed. In their wars a whole regiment of these people will sometimes agree to "amok," and then rush on with such energetic des- pei'ation as to be very formidable to men not so excited as themselves. Among the ancients these would have l>een looked upon as heroes or demigods who sacrificed themselves for their country. Here it is simply said — they made " amok." Macassar is the most celebrated place in the East for " running a muck.'* There are sjiid to be one or two a month on the average, and five, ten, or twenty persons are sometimes killed or wounded at one of them. It is tiie national and therefore the honourable mode of committing suicide among the natives of Celebes, and is the fashionable way of escaping from their difficulties. A Roman fell upon his swoixl, a Japanese rips up his stomach, and an Englishman blows out his brains with a pistol. The Bugis mode has many advantages to one suicidically inclined. A man thinks himself wi*onged by society— he is in debt and cannot pay — he is taken for a slave or has gambled away his wife or child into slavery — he sees no way of recovering what he has lost, and becomes desperate. He will not put up with such cruel wrongs, but will i)e i*evenged on mankind and die like a hero. He grasps his kris-handle, and the next moment draws out the weapon and stabs a man to the heart. He runs on, with the bloody kris in his hand, stabbing at every one he meets. " Amok ! Amok ! " then resounds through the streets. Spears, krisses, knives and guns are brought out against him. He rushes madly forward, kills all he can — men, women, and children — and dies overwhelmed by numbers amid all the excitement of a battle. And what that excitement is those who have been in one best know, but all who have ever given way to violent passions, or even indulged in violent and exciting exercises, may form a very good idea. It is a delirious intoxication, a temporary XI. ] LOMBOCK : CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE. 186 madness that absorbs every thought and every energy. And can we wonder at the kris*bearing, untaught^ brooding Malay pre- ferring such a death, looked ui)on as almost honourable, to the cold-blooded details of suicide, if he wishes to escape from over- whelming troubles, or the merciless clutches of the hangman and the disgrace oi a public execution, when he has taken tlie law into his own hands, and too hastily revenged himself upon his enemy 7 I]i either case he chooses rather to ^' amok." ^ The great staples of the trade of Lombock as well as of Bali are rice and coffee ; the former grown on the plains, the latter on the hills. The rice is exported very largely to other islands of the Archipelago, to Singapore, and even to Cliina, and there are generally one or i. ^/e vessels loading in the port. It is brought into Ampanam on pack-hoi*ses, and almost every day a string of these would come into Mr. Carter's yard. The only money the natives will take for their rice is Chinese copper cash, twelve hundred of which go to a dollar. Every morning two large sacks of this money had to be counted out into convenient sums for pay- ment. From Bali quantities of dried beef and ox-tails are ex- ported, and from Lombock a good many ducks and ponies. The ducks are a peculiar breed, which have very long flat bodies, and walk erect almost like penguins. They are generally of a pale reddish ash colour, and are kept in large flocks. They are very cheap and are largelv consumed by the crews of the rice ships, by whom they are called Baly -soldiers, but are more generally known elsewhere as penguin-ducks. My Portuguese bird-stuti'er Fernandez now insisted on break- ing bis agreement and returning to Singapore ; partly from home-sickness, but more I believe from the idea that his life was not worth many months purchase among such bloodthirsty and uncivilized peoples. It was a considerable loss to me, as I had paid him full three times the usual wages for three months in advance, half of which was occupied in the voyage and the rest in a place where I could have done without him, owing to there being so few insects that I could devote my own time to shoot- ing and skinning. A few days after Fernandez had left, a small schooner came m bound for Macassar, to which place 1 took a passage. As a fitting conclusion to my sketch of these interest- ing islands^ I will narrate an anecdote which I heard of the present Bajah ; and which, whether altogether true or not^ well illustrates native character, and will serve as a means of intro- ducing some details of the manners and customs of the country to which I have not yet ulluded. 136 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. CHAPTER XIL LOMBOCK : HOW THE RAJAH TOOK THE CENSUS. The Rajah of Loinbock was a very wise man, and he showed his wisdom gi^eatly in the way lie took the census. For my readers must know that tlie chief revenues of the Rajah were derived from a head -tax of rice, a small measure being paid annually by every man, woman, and child in the island. There was no doubt that every one paid this tax, for it was a very light one, and the land was fertile and the people well off; but it had to purho(Kl of shady trees, where they built sheds and huts of oamboo well thatched with the leaves of 138 THE MAToAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. palm-trees, in which the Eajah and his attendants might eat and sleep at the close of each day. And when all was ready^, the princes and priests and chief men came a^in to the Rajah, to tell him what had been done and to ask him when he would go up the mountain. And he fixed a day, and ordered every man of rank and authority to accompany him, to do honour to the great spirit who had bid him undertake the journey, and to show how willingly they obeyed his commands. And then there was much preparation throughout the whole island. The best cattle were killed and the meat salted and sun-dried ; and abundance of red peppers and sweet potatoes were gathered ; and the tall pinan^-trees were climbed for the spicy betel nut, the sirih-leaf was tied up in bundles, and every man filled his tobacco pouch and lime box to the brim, so that ho might not want any of the materials for chewing the refreshing betel during the journey. And the stores of provisions were sent on a day in advance. And on the day before that appointed for starting, all the chiefs both great and small came to Mataram, the abode of the king, with their horses and their servants, and the bearers of their sirih boxes, and their sleeping mats, and their provisions. And they en- camped under the tall Waringin-trees that border all the roads about Mataram, and with blazing fires flighted away the ghouls and evil spirits that nightly haunt the gloomy avenues. In the morning a great procession was formed to conduct the Rajah to tlie mountain. And the royal princes and relations of the Rajah mounted their black horses, whose tails swept the ground ; they used no saddle or stirrups, but sat upon a cloth of gay colours ; the bits were of silver and the bridles of many coloured cords. The less important people were on small strong horses of various colours, well suited to a mountain loumey ; and all (even the Rajah) were bare-legged to above tlie knee, wearing only the gay coloured cotton waist-cloth, a silk or cotton jacket, and a large handkerchief tastefully folded round the head. Every one was attended by one or two servants bearing his sirili and betel boxes, who were also mounted on ponies ; and great numbers more had gone on in advance or waited to bring up the rear. The men in authority were num- bered by hundreds and their followers by thousands, and all the island wondered what great thing would come of it. For the first two days they went along good roads and through many villages which were swept clean, and had bright cloths hung out at tlie windows ; and all the people, when the Rajah came, squatted down upon the ground in respect, and every man riding got off his horse and squatted down also, and many joined the procession at eveiy village. At the place where they stopped for the night, the people had placed stakes along each side of the roads in front of the houses. These were split crosswise at the top, and in the cleft were fastened little clay lamps, and between them were stuck the green leaves XII.) LOMBOCK : HOW THE RAJAH TOOK THE CENSUS. 139 of palm-trees, which, dripping with the evening dew, gleamed prettilv with the many twinkling lights. And few went to sleep that night till the morning hours, for every house held a knot of eager talkers, and much betel-nut was consumed, and endless were the conjectures what would come of it. On the second day they left the last village behind them and entered the wild country that surrounds the great mountain, and rested in the huts that had been prepared for them on the hanks of a stream of cold and sparkling water. And the Hajah's hunters, armed with long and heavy guns, went in search of deer and wild bulls in tlje surfoundin^ woods, and brought home the meat of both in the early morning, and sent it on in advance to prepare the mid-dav meal. On the third day they advanced as far as horses could go, and encamped at the foot of high rocks, among which narrow pathways onlv could be found to reach the mountain-top. And on the fourth mornine when the Rajah set out, he was accompanied only by a small party of priests and princes with their immediate attendants ; and they toiled wearily up the rugged way, and sometimes were carried by their sei'vants, till tliey passed up above the greut trees, and then among the thorny bushes, and above them again on to the black and burnt rock of the highest part of the mountain. And when they were near the summit the Rajah ordered them all to halt, while he alone went to meet the great spirit on the very peak of the mountain. So he went on with two boys onlv who carried his sirih and betel, and soon reached the top of the mountain among great rocks, on the edge of the great gulf whence issue forth continually smoke and vapour. And the Rajah asked for sirih, and told the boys to sit down under a rock and look down the mountain, and not to move till he returned to them. And as they were tired, and tlie sun was warm and pleasant, and the rock sheltered them from the cold wind, the boys fell asleep. And the Rajah went a little way on under another rock ; and he was tired, and the sun was warm and pleasant, and he too fell asleep. And those who were waiting tor the Rajah thought him a lon^. time on the top of the mountain, and thought the great spirit must have much to say, or might perhaps want to keep him on the mountain always, or perhaps he haa missed his way in coming down again. And they were debating whether they should go and search for him, when they saw him coming down with the two boys. And when he met them he looked very grave, but said nothing ; and then all descended together, ana the procession returned as it had come ; and the Rajah went to his palace and the chiefs to their villages, and the people to their houses, to tell their wives and children all that had happened, and to wonder yet again what would come of it. And three days afterwards the Rajah summoned the priests and the princes and the chief men of Mataram, to hear what 140 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. the great spirit had told him on the top of the mountain. And when thev were all assembled, and the betel and sirih had been handed round, he told tliem what had happened. On the top of the mountain lie had fallen into a trance, and the great spirit had appeared to him with a face like burnished gold, and had said — *' 0 Hajah ! much plague and sickness and fevers are coming upon all the earth, upon men and upon horses and upon cattle ; but as you and your people have ooeyed me and have come up to my great mountain, I will teach you how you and all the people of Lombock may escape this plague." And all wait(*d anxiously, toihear how they were to be saved from so fearful a calamity. And after a short silence the Rajah spoke again and told them,— that the great spirit had commanded that twelve sacred krisses should be mfule, and tliat to make them every village and every district must send a bundle of needles — a needle for every head in the village. And when any frievous disease appeared in any' village, one of the sacred risses should l>e sent there ; and if every house in that village had sent the right number of neediest the disease would im- mediately cease ; but if the number oi needles sent had not been exact, the kris would have no virtue. So the princes and chiefs sent to all their villages and com- municatea the wonderful news ; and all made haste to collect the needles with the greatest accuracy, for they feared that if but one were wanting the whole village would suffer. So one by one the head men of the villages brought in their bundles of needles ; those wlio were near Mataram came firsts and those who were far off came last ; and the Rajah receivea them with his own liands, and put them away carefully in an inner chamber, in a camphor-wood chest whose hinges and clasps were of silver ; and on every bundle was marked the name of the village and the district from whence it came, so that it might be known that all had he:ird and obeyed the commands of the great spirit. And when it was quite certain that every village had sent in its bundle, the Rajah divided the needles into twelve equal parts, and ordered the best steel-worker in Mataram to bring Iiis forge and his bellows and his hammers to the palace, and to make the twelve krisses under the Rajah's eye, and in the sight of all men who chose to see it. And when they were finished, they were wrapped up in new silk and put away carefully until they might be wanted. Now the journey to the mountain was in the time of the east wind when no rain falls in Lombock. And soon after the krisses were made it was the time of the rice harvest, and the chiefs of districts and of villages brought in their tax to the Rajah according to the number of heads in their villages. And to those that wanted but little of the fuU amount, the Rajah said nothing ; but when those came who brought only half or a fourth part of what was strictly due, he said to them mildly. XIII.] TIMOR. 141 **The needles which you sent from your village were man^ more than came from such-a-one's village, yet your tribute is less than liis ; go back and see who it is that has not paid the tax." And the next year the produce of the tax increased greatly, for they feared that the Rajah might justly kill those who a second time kept back the right tribute. And so the Eajah became very rich, and increased the number of his soldiers, and gave golden lewels to his wives, and bouglit fine black horses from the white-skinned Hollanders, and made great feasts when his children were bom or were married ; and none of the Rajahs or Sultans among the Malays were so great or so powerful as the Raiah of Lombock. Ana the twelve sacred krisses had great virtue. And when any sickness appeared in a village one of them was sent for * and sometimes the sickness went away, and then the sacreci kris was taken back again with great honour, and the head men of the village came to tell tlie Rajah of its miraculous power, and to thank him. And sometimes the sickness would not go away ; and then eveiybody was convinced that there liad been a mistake in the number of needles sent from that village, and therefore the sacred kris had no effect, and had to be taken back again by the head men with heavy hearts, but still with all honour,— tor was not the fault their own ? CHAPTER XIII. TIMOR. (couPANG, 1857-1859. delli, 1861.) The island of Timor is about three hundred miles long and sixty wide, and seems to form the termination of the great range of volcanic islands which begins with Sumatra more than two thousand miles to the west. It differs however very remarkably from all the other islands of the chain in not possessing any active volcanoes, with the one exception of Timor Peak near the centre of the island, which was tormerly active, but was blown up during an eruption in 1638 and has since been quiescent. In no other part of Timor do thet*e appear to be any recent igneous rocks, so that it can hardly lie caused as a volcanic island. Indeed its position is just outside of the great volcanic belt, which extends from Flores through Ombay and Wetter to Banda. 1 first visited Timor in 1857, staying a day at Coupang, the chief Dutch town at the west end of the island ; and again in May 1859, when I stayed a fortnight in the same neighbour- hood. In the spring of 1861 I spent four months at Delli, the 142 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. capital of the Portugueee possessions in the eastern part of the island. The whole neighbourhood of Coupang appears to have been elevated at a recent epoch, consisting of a rugged surface of cor9.1 rock, which rises in a vertical wall between the beach and the town, whose low wiiite red-tiled houses give it an appearance very similar to other Dutch settlements in the East. The vege- tation is everywhere scanty and scrubby. Plants of the families Apocynacese and Euphorbiaceie abound ; but there is nothing that can be called a forest, and the whole country has a. parched and desolate appearance, contrasting strongly with the lofty forest trees ana perennial verdure of the Moluccas or of Singa- pore. The most conspicuous feature of the vegetation was the abundance of tine fan-leaved palms (Borassus flabelliformis), from the leaves of which are constructed the strong and durable water-buckets in general use, and which are much superior to those formed from any other species of palm. From the same tree, palm-wine and sugar are made, and the common thatch for nouses formed of the leaves lasts six or seven years without removal. Close to the town I noticed the foundation of a ruined house below high-water mark, indicating recent subsidence. Earthquakes are not severe here, and are so infrequent and harmless that the chief houses are built of stone. The inhabitants of Coupang consist of Malays, Chinese, and Dutch, besides the natives ; so that there are many strange and complicated mixtures among the population. There is one re^iaent English merchant, and whalers as well as Australian ships often come here for stores and water. The native Timorese preponderate, and a very little examination serves to show that they have nothing in common with Malays, but are much more closely allied to the true Papuans of the Aru Islands and New Guinea. They are tall, have pronounced features, large, somewhat aquiline noses, and frizzly hair, and are generally of a dusky brown colour. The way in which the women talk to each other and to the men, their loud voices and laughter, and general character of self-assertion, would enable an experienced observer to decide, even without seeing them, that they were not Malays. Mr. Amdt, a German and the Government doctor, invited me to stay at his house while in Coupang, and I gladly accepted his offer, as I only intended making a short visit. We at first l^egan speaking French, but he got on so badly that we soon passed insensibly into Malay ; and we afterwards held long dis- cussions on literary, scientific, and philosophical questions, in that serai-barbarous language, whose deficiencies we made up by the free use of French or Latin words. After a few walks in the neighbourhood of the town, I found such a poverty of insects and birds that I determined to go for a few days to the island of Semao at the western extremity of Timor, where I heard that there was forest country with birds XIII.] TIMOR. 143 not found at Coupang. With some difficulty I obtained a large dug-out boat with out-riggefs, to take me over, a distance of about twenty miles. I found the country pretty well wooded, but covered with shrubs and thorny bushes rather than forest trees, and everywhere excessively parched and dried up by the long-continued dry season. I stayed at the villaj^e of Oeassa, remarkable for its soap springs. One of the.se is in the middle of the village bubbling out from a little cone of mud to which the ground rises all round like a volcano in miniature. The water has a soapy feel and produces a strong lather when any greasy substance is washed m it. It contains alkali and iodine, in such quantities as to destroy all vegetation for some distance round. Close by the village is one of the finest springs I have ever seen, contained in several rocky basins communicating by narrow channels. These have been neatly walled where required and partly levelled, and form fine natural baths. The water is well tasted and clear as crystal, and the basins are surrounded by a grove of lofty many-stemmed banyan-trees, which keep them always cool and shady, and add greatly to the picturesque beauty of the scene. The village consists of curious little houses very different from any I have seen elsewhere. They are of an oval figure, and the walls are made of sticks about four feet high placed close together. From this rises a high conical roof thatched with grass. The only opening is a door about three feet high. The people are like the Timorese with frizzly or wavy hair and of a coppery bi'own colour. The better class appear to have a mixture of some superior race which has much improved their features. I saw in (Joupang some chiefs from the island of Savu further west, who presented characters very distinct from either the Malay or Papuan races. They most resembled Hindoos, havinff fine well-iormed features and straif^ht thin noses with clear Drown complexions. As the Brahminical religion once spread over all Java, and even now exists in Bali and Lombock, it is not at all improbable that some natives of India should have reached this island, either by accident or to escape perse- cution, and formed a permanent settlement there. I stayed at Oeassa four days, when, not finding any insects and very few new birds, I returned to Coupang to await the next mail steamer. On the way I had a nartx>w escape of being swamped. The deep coffin-like boat was filled up with my ^8S»^Sr^ Ai^d with vegetables, cocoa-nuts and other fruit for Coupang market, and when we had got some way across into a rather rough sea, we found that a quantity of water wtis coming in which we had no means of baling out. This caused us to sink deeper in the water, and then we shipped seas over our sides, and the rowers who had before declared it was nothing now became alarmed, and turned the boat round to ge^ back to the coast of Semao, which was not far off. By clearing away some of the baggage a little of the water could be baled out, but 144 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. hardly so fast as it came in, and wlien we neared the coast we found nothing but vertical walls of rock against which the sea was violently beating. We coasted along some distance till we found .a little cove into which we ran the boat, hauled it on shore, and emptying it found a large hole in the bottom, which had been temporarily stopped up with a plug of cocoa-nut husk which had come out. Had we been a quarter of a mile further off before we discovered the leak, we should certainly have been obliged to throw most of our baggage overboard, and might easily have lost our lives. After we had put all straight and secure we again started, and when we were half-way aci*oss got into such a strong current and hi^h cross sea that we were very nearly being swamped a second time, which made me vow never to trust myself again in such small and miserable vessels. The mail steamer did not arrive for a week, and I occupied myself in getting as man^fr of the birds as I could, and found some which were very interesting. Among these were five species of pigeons, of as many distinct genera, and most of them peculiar to the island ; two parrots — the fine red- winged broad- tail (Platycercus vulneratus) allied to an Australian species, and a green species of the genus GreofFroyus. The Tropidorhynchus timorensis was as ubiquitous and as noisy as I had found it at Lomliock ; and the Spha»cothera viridis, a curious green oriole, with bare red orbits, was a great acquisition. There were several pretty finches, warblers, and flycatchers, and among them I obtained the elegant blue and red' Cyornis hyacinthina ; but I cannot recognise among mv collections the species men- tioned by Dampier, who seems to have been much struck by the number of small son^- birds in Timor. He says : "One sort of these pretty little birds my men called the ringing bird, be- cause it had six notes, and always repeated all his notes twice, one after the other, beginning high and shrill and ending low. The bird was about the bigness of a lark, having a small sharp black bill and blue w^ngs, the head and breast were of a pale red, and there was a blue streak about its neck." In Seniao monkeys are abundant. They are the common hare-lipped monkey (Macacus cynomolgus), which is found all over the western islands of the Archipelago, and may have been introduced by natives, who often carry it about captive. There are also some deer, but it is not quite certain whether they are of the same species as are found in Java. I arrived at Delli, the capital of the Portuguese possessions in Timor, on January 12, 1861, and was kindly received by Captain Hart, an Englishman and an old resident, who trades in the produce of the country and cultivates coffee on an estate at the foot of the hills. With him I was introduced to Mr. Geach, a mining-engineer who had lx?en for two years endeavouring to discover copper in sufiiciont quantity to he worth working. Delli is a most miserable place compared with even the poorest of the Dutch towns. The houses are all of mud and thatch ; the XIII.] TIMOR. 146 fort is only a mud inclosure ; and the custom-house and church are built of the same mean materials, with no attempt at decoration or even neatness. The whole aspect of the place is that of a poor native town, and there is no sign of cultivation or civilization round about it His Excellency the Governor's house is the only one that makes any pretensions to appearance, and that is merely a low wliite- washed cottage or Dung^low. Yet there is one thing in which civilization exhibits itself. Officials in black and white European costume, and officers in gorgeous uniforms, abound in a degree quite disproportionate to the size or appearance of the place. The town being surrounded for some distance by swamps and mud-flats is very unhealthy, and a single night often gives a fever to new-comers which not unfrequently proves fatal. To avoid this malaria, Captain Hart always slept at his plantation, on a slight elevation about two miles trom the town, where Mr. Qeach also had a small house, which he kiudlv invit^ me to share. We rode there in the evening : and in the course of two days my baggage was brought up, and I was able to look about me and see u I could do any collecting. For the first few weeks I was very unwell and could not go far from the house. The country was covered with low spiny shrubs and acacias, except in a little valley where a stream came down from tlie hills, where some fine trees and bushes shadcKl the water and formed a very pleasant place to ramble up. There were plenty of birds about, and of a tolerable variety oi species ; but very few of them were gaily coloured. Indeed, with one or two exceptions, the birds of this tropical island were hardly so ornamental as those of Great Britain. Beetles were so scarce that a collector might fairly say there were none, as the few obscure or uninteresting species would not repay him for the search. The onlv insects at all remarkable or interesting were tho butterflies, which, though comparatively few in species, were sufficiently abundant, and comprised a large proportion of new or rare sorts. The banks of the stream formed my best collecting- ground, and I daily wandered up and down its shady bed, which about a mile up became rocky and precipitous. Here I obtained the rare and beautiful swallow-tail butterflies, Papiliosenomaus and P. liris ; the males of which are quite unlike each other, and belong in fact to distinct sections of the genus, while the females are so much alike that they are undistinguishable on the wing, and to an uneducated eye equallv so in the cabinet. Several other beautiful butterflies rewarded my search in this place; among which I may especially mention the Cethosia leschenaultii, whose wings of the deepest purple are bordered with buff in such a manner as to resemble at first sight our own Camberwell beauty, although it belongs to a different genus. The most abundant butterflies were the whites and yellows (Pieridae), several of which I had already found at Lombock and at Ck>upang, while others were new to me. 146 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. Earlv in February we made arrangements to st ly for a week at a village called Baliba, situated about four miles off on the mountains, at an elevation of 2,000 feet. We took our baggage and a supply of all necessaries on pack-horses ; and though the distance oy the route we took was not more than six or seven miles, we were half a day getting there. The roads were mei*e tnicks, sometimes up steep rocky stairs, sometimes in narrow gullies worn by the horses feet, and where it was necessary to tuck up our legs on our horses' necks to avoid having tnem crushea. At some of these places the baggage had to be unloaded, at others it was knocked off. Sometimes the ascent or descent was so steep that it was easier to walk than to cling to our ponies' tracks ; and thus we went up and down, over bare hills whose surface was covered with small pebbles and scattered over with Eucalypti, reminding me of what I had read of parts of the interior of Austrsilia rather than of the Malay Archipelago. The village consisted of three houses only, with low walls, raised a few feet on posts, and very high roofs thatched with grass hanging down to within two or three feet of the ground. A house whicli was unfinished and partly open at the back was given for our use, and in it we rigged up a table, some benches, and a screen, while an inner enclosed portion served us for a sleeping apartment. We had a splendid view down upon Delli and the sea beyond. The country round was undulating and open, except in the hollows, where there were some patches of forest, whicli Mr. Geach, who had been all over the eastern part of Timor, assured me was the most luxuriant he had yet seen in the islana. I was in hopes of finding some insects here, but was much disappointed, owing perhaps to tlie dampness of the climate ; for it was not till the sun was pretty high that the mists cleared away, and by noon we were generally clouded up again, so that there was seldom more than an hour or two of fitful sunshine. We searched in every direction for birds and other game, but they were very scarce. On our way I had shot the fine white-heade gardf^n oh a i-ifni of the "poniiili vill preserve its prodnoefr'iiii tliit^vtnsKi^f^ctually as tlie threat^nins itulice of maU'trnM, Mjiririg ffann, or a israge dog, would do with u&. The dead »« pU^wron a Ktage. raisnl rix or eiclit fert above K MUl. (fnm a |iAo(tvapft.) the ground, Bometimea open and sometimea covered with a roof. Here the body reinaina till the relatives can afford to make a feast, when it is buried. The Timorese are generally great thieveB,but are not bloodthirsty. They tight continually among tiiemBelves and take every opportunity of kidnapping uu- XIII.1 TIMOR 161 protected people of other tribes for slaves ; but Europeans may pkss anywhere through the oountry in safety. Except a few half-breeds in the town, there ai*e no native Christians in the island of Timor. The people retain their independence in a gi*eat measure, and botn aislike and despise taeir would-be rulers, whether Portuguese or Dutch. Tlie Portuguese government in Timor is a most miserable one. Nolxxly seems to care the least about the improvement of the country^ and at this time, after three hundred years of occupation, there has not been a mile of road made beyond the town, and there is not a solitary European resident anywhere in the interior. All the Gk>vernment ol&cials oppress and rob the natives as much as they can, and yet there is no care taken to render the town defensible should the Timorese attempt to attack it. So ignorant are the military officers, that having received a small mortar and some shells, no one could be found who knew how to use them ; and during an insurrection of the natives (while I was at Delli) the officer who expected to be sent against the insurgents was instantly taken ill ! and they were allowed to get possession of an important pass within three miles of the town, where they could defend themselves against ten times the force. The result was that no provisions were brought down from tlie hills ; a famine was imminent, and the Governor had to send ofl' to beg for supplies from the Dutch Governor of Amlx>yna. In its present state Timor is more trouble than profit to its Dutch and Portuguese rulers, and it will continue to be so unless a different system is pursued. A few good roads into the elevated districts of the interior ; a conciliatory policy and strict justice towards the natives, and the introauction of a good system of cultivation as in Java and Northern Celebes, might yet make Timor a productive and valuable island. Eice grows well on the marshy flats which often fringe tlie coast, and maize thrives in all the lowlands, and is the common food of the natives as it was when Darapier visited the island in 1699. The small quantity of coffee now grown is of very superior c|uality. and it might be increased to any extent. Sheep thrive, ana would always be valuable as fresh food for whalers and to supply the adjacent islands with mutton, if not for their wool ; although it is probable that on the mountains tliis product miglit soon be obtained by judicious breeding. Horses thrive amazingly ; and enough wheat might be grown to supply the whole Archipelago if there were sufficient induce- ments to the natives to extend its cultivation, and good roads by which it could be cheaply transported to the coast. Under such a system the natives would soon perceive that European government was advantageous to them. Tiiey would begin to save money, and property being rendered secure they would rapidly acquire new wants and new tastes, and become large consumers of European goods. This would be a far surer 162 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chav. source of profit to their rulers than imposts and extortion, and -would be at the same time more likely to produce peace and obedience, than tlie mock-military rule Wliich has hitherto proved most ineffective. To inaugurate such a system would however require an immediate outlav of capital, which neither Dutch nor Portuguese seem inclined to make, — and a number of honest and energetic officials, which the latter nation at least seems unable to produce ; so that it is much to be feared that Timor will for man}r years to come remain in its present state of chronic insurrection and mis-government.^ Morality at Delli is at as low an ebb as in the far inteen derived from the Moluccas, all these birds can be traced, either directly or by close allies, to Java on the one side or to Austrjilia on the other ; although no less than 82 of them are found nowhere out of this small group of islands. Thero is not, however, a single genus peculiar to the group, or even one which is largely represented in it by peculiar species ; and this is a fact which indicates that the fauna is strictly derivative, and that its origin does not go back beyond one of the most recent geological epochs. Of course there are a large number of species (such as most of the waders, many of the raptorial birds, some of the kingfishers, swallows, and a few others), which range so widely over a large part of the Archipelago, that it is impossible to trace them as having come from any one part rather than from another. There are fifty-seven such species in my list, and besides these there are thirty -five more which, though peculiar to the Timor group, are yet allied to wide-ranging forms. Deducting these ninety-two species, we have nearly a hundred birds left whose relations with those of other countries we will now consider. If we first take those species which, as far as we yet know, are absolutely confined to each island, we find, in — Lombock 4, belonging to 2 genera, of which 1 is Australian, 1 Indian. Flores . 12 ,, 7 „ 6 are ,, 2 „ Timor . 42 „ 20 „ 16 ,, 4 „ The actual number of peculiar species in each island I do not suppose to be at all accurately determined, since the rapidly increasing numl>ers evidently depend upon the more extensive collections made in Timor than in Flores, and in Flores than in Lombock ; but what we can depend more upon, and what is of more especial interest, is the greatly increased proportion of Australian forms and decreased proportion of Indian forms, as 1 Ponr or five new species have been since Rdde[ and, as we shall soon see, an unwarranted supposi- tion. Besides these birds identical with species inhabiting J ava and Australia, there are a considerable number of others very closely allied to species peculiar to those countries, and we must take these also into account before we form any conclusion on the matter. It will be as well to combine these with the former table thus : In Lombock. In Flores. In Timor. Javan birds 33 23 11 Closely allied to Javan birds ... 1 5 6 Total 34 28 17 Anstralian birds 4 5 10 Closely allied to Aastralian birds .3 9 26 Total 7 14 36 We now see that the total number of birds which seem to have b€«n derived from Java and Australia is very nearly equal, but there is this remarkable difference between the two series : that whereas the larger proportion by far of the Java set are identical with those still inhabiting timt country, an almost equally large proportion of the Australian set are distinct, thoueh often very closely allied species. It is to be observed also, that these representative or allied species diminish in number as they recede from Australia, while they increase in number as they recede from Java. There are two reasons for this, one being that the islands decrease rapidly in 1 The names of all the birds inhabiting thette inlands are to be found in the " Pro- ceedings of the Zoological Society of London " for the year 1863. 158 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. size from Timor to Lombock, and can therefore support a de- creasing number of species ; the other and the more important i& that the distance of Australia from Timor cuts off the supply ot fresh immigrants, and has thus allowed variation to nave full play ; i^'hiie the vicinity of Lombock to Bali and Java has allowed a continual influx of fresh individuals which, by crossing with the earlier immigrants, has checked variation. To simplify our view of the derivative origin of the birds of these islands let us treat them as a whole, and thus perluips render more intelligible their respective relations to Java and Austi'alia. Tlie Timor group of islands contains : — Javan birds 36 Australian birds .... 13 Closely allied si>ooies ... 1 1 Closely allied 8i)ecies ... 35 Derivevenior, accompanied by my friend the Danish merchant, who sjpoke excellent English. His Excellency was very polite, and offered me every facility for travelling about the country and prosecuting my researches in natural history. We con- versed in French, which all Dutch officials speak very well. Finding it very inconvenient and expensive to stay in the town, I removed at the end of a week to a little bamboo house, kindly offered me by Mr. Mesman. It was situated about two miles away, on a small coffee-plantation and farm, and about a mile beyond Mr. M.'s own country house. It consisted of two rooms raised about seven feet above the ground^ the lower part beinff partly open (and serving excellently to skin birds in) and partly used as a g^nary for rice. There was a kitchen and other outhouses, and several cottages near were occupied by men in Mr. M.'s employ. After being settled a few days in my new house, I found that no collections could \ye made without going much further into the country. The rice-fields for some miles round resembled M 2 164 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. English stubbles late in autumn, and were almost as unproduc- tive of bird or insect life. There were several native villages scattered about, so embosomed in fruit trees that at a distance they looked like clumps or patches of forest. These were my only collecting places, uut they produced a very limited number of species, and were soon exhausted. Before 1 could move to any more promising district it was necessary to obtain per- mission from the Rajah of Qoa, whose territories approach to within two miles of the town of Macassar. I therefore pre- sented myself at the Governor's office and requested a letter to the Bajah, to claim his protection, and permission to travel in his territories whenever I might wish to do so. This was im- mediately granted, and a special messenger was sent with me to carrv the letter. My friend Mr. Mesman kindly lent me a horse, and accom- panied me on my visit to the Rajah, with whom tie was great friends. We found his Majesty seated out of doors, watclnng tlie erection of a new house. He was naked from the waist up, wearing only the usual short trousers and sarong. Two chairs were brought out for us, T)ut all the cliiefs and other natives were seated on the ground. The messenger, squatting down at the Rajah's feet, produced the letter, which was sewn up in a covering of yellow silk. It was handed to one of the chief officers, who ripped it open and returned it to the Rajah, who read it, and then showed it to Mr. M., who both speaks and reads the Macassar language fluently, and who explained fully what I required. Permission was immediately granted me to go where I liked in the territories of Goa, but the Kaiah desired, that should I wish to stay any time at a place I would first give him notice, in order that he might send some one to see that no injury was done me. Some wine was then brought us, and afterwards some detestable coffee and wretched sweetmeats, for it is a fact that I have never tasted good coffee where people grow it themselves. Although this was the height of the dry season, and there was a fine wind all day. it was by no means a healthy time of year. My boy AH had hardly })een a day on shore when he was attacked by fever, which put me to ^reat inconvenience, as at the house where I was staying nothing could be obtained but at meal-times. After having cured AH, and with much difficulty got another servant to cook for me, I was no sooner settled at my country abode than the latter was attacked with the same disease ; and, having a wife in the town, left me. Hardly was he gone than I fell ill myself, with strong intermittent fever every other day. In about a week I got over it, by a liberal use of quinine, when scarcely was I on my legs than AH became worse than ever. His fever attacked him daily, but early in the morning he was pretty well, and then managed to cook me enough for the day. In a week I cured him and also succeeded in getting another boy who could cook and shoot, and had no XT.] CELEBES. 165 objection to go into the interior. His name was Baderoon, and as he was unmarried and had been used to a roving life, having been several voyages to North Australia to catch trepang or '* beche de mer," I was in hopes of being able to keep him. I also got hold of a little impudent rascal of twelve or fourteen, who could speak some Malay, to carry my gun or insect-net ana make himself generally useful. Ali had by this time become a pretty good bird-skinner, so that I was uiirly supplied with servants. I made manv excursions into the country, in search of a good station for collecting birds and insects. Some of the villages a few miles inland ai'e scattered about in woody ground which has once been virgin forest, but of which the constituent trees have been for the most part replaced by fruit trees, and jparticu- larly by the large palm, Aren^a saccharifera, from which wine and sugar are made, and which also produces a coarse black fibre used for cordage. That necessary of life, the bamboo, has also been abundantly planted. In such places I found a good many birds, among which were the fine cream-coloured pigeon, Carpopha|^ luctuosa, and the rare blue-headed roller, Coracias temmincki, which has a most discordant voice, and generally goes in pairs, flying from tree to tree, and exliibitin^ while at rest that all-in-a-heap appearance and jerking motion of the head and tail which are so characteristic of the great Fissiros- tral ^roup to which it belongs. From this habit alone, the kingfishers, bee-eaters, rollers, trogons, and Soutli American puft-birds, might be grouped together by a person who had observed them in a state of nature, but who had never had an opportunity of examining their form and structure in detail. Tnousands of crows, rather smaller than our rook, keep up a constant cawing in these plantations ; the curious wood-swallows (Artami), which closely resemble swallows in their habits and night but differ much in form and structure, twitter from the tree-tops; while a lyre-tailed drongo-shrike. with brilliant black plumage and milk-white eyes, continually deceives the naturalist by the variety of its unmelodious notes. In the more shadv parts butterflies were tolerably abundant ; the most common being species of Euplsea and Danais, which frequent gardens and slirubbenes, and owing to their weak flight are easily captured. A beautiful pale blue and black butterfly, which flutters along near the ground among the thickets, and settles occasionally upon flowers, was one of the most striking ; and scarcelv less so, was one witli a rich orange band on a blackish ground : these both belong to the Pieridee, the group that contains our common white butterflies, althougli differing so much from them in appearance. Both were quite new to European naturalists.^ Now and then I extended my walks some miles further, to the only patch of true forest I 1 The former has been named Eronia tritaea ; the latter Tacbyris itlwmo. 106 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. could find, accompanied by my two boys with guns and insect- net. We used to start earl v. taking our breakfast with us, and eating it wherever we coula find shade and wat^r. At sucli times my Macassar boys would put a minute fragment of rice and meat or fish on a leaf, and lay it on a stone or stump as an ofieringto the deity of the spot ; for though nominal Mahometans the Macassar people retain many pagan superstitions, and are but lax in their religious observances. Pork, it is true, they hold in abhorrence, but will not refuse wine when offered them, and consume immense quantities of "sagueir," or palm-wine, which is about as intoxicating as ordinary beer or cicter. When well made it is a very refreshing drink, and we often took a draught at some of the little sheds dignified by the name of bazaars, which are scattered about the country wherever there is any traffic. One day Mr. Mesman told me of a larger piece of forest where he sometimes went to shoot deer, but he assured me it was much further off, and that there were no birds. However, I resolved to explore it, and the next morning at five o'clock we started, carrying our breakfast and some other provisions with us, and intending to sta^ the niffht at a house on the borders of the wood. To my surprise two hours' hard walking brought us to this house, where we obtained permission to pass the night. We then walked on, Ali and Baderoon with a gun each, oaso carrying our provisions and my insect-box, while I took only mv net and collecting-bottle and determined to devote myself wholly to the insects. Scarcely had I entered the forest when I found some beautiful little green and gold speckled weevils allied to the genus Pa<;hyrhynchus, a group which is almost confined to the Philippine Islands, and is quite unknown in Borneo, Java, or Malacca. The road was shady and apparently much trodden by horses and cattle, and I quickly obtained some butterflies I had not before met with. Soon a couple of reports were heard, and coming up to my boys I found they had shot two specimens of one of the finest of known cuckoos, Phoenicophaus callirhynchus. This bird derives its name from its large Dill being coloured of a brilliant yellow, red, and black, in about equal proportions. The tail is exceedingly long, ana of a fine metallic purple, while the plumage of the body is liglit coffee brown. It is one of the characteristic birds of the island of Celebes, to which it is confined. After sauntering along for a couple of liours we reached a small river, so deep that horses could only cross it by swimming, so we had to turn oack ; but as we were getting hungry, and the water of the almost stagnant river was too muddy to drink, we went towards a house a few hundred yards off. In the plan- tation we saw a small raised hut, which we thought would do well for us to breakfast in, so I entered, and found inside a young woman with an infant. She handed me a jug of water, but looked very much frightened. However, I sat down on the XV.] CELEBES. 167 door-step, and asked for the provisions. In handing them up, Baderoon saw the infant, ana started back as if he had seen a serpent. It then immediately struck me that this was a hut in which, as among the Dyaks of Borneo and many other savage tribes, the women are secluded for some time after the birth of their child, and that we did very wrong to enter it ; so we walked off and asked permission to eat our breakfast in the family mansion close at hand, which was of course granted. While I ate, three men, two women, and four children watched every motion, and never took eyes off me till I had finished. On our way back in the heat of the day I had the good fortune to capture three specimens of a fine Ornithoptera, the largest, the most perfect^ and the most beautiful of butterflies. I trembled with excitement as I took the first out of my net and found it to be in perfect condition. The ground colour of this superb insect was a rich shining bronzy black, the lower wings delicately grained with white, and bordered by a row of large spots of the most brilliant and satiny yellow. The body was marked with shaded spots of white, yellow, and fierv orange, while the head and thorax were intense black. On the under- side the lower winffs were satiny white, with the marginal spots half black and half yellow. I gazed upon my prize with ex- treme interest, as I at first thought it was quite a new species. It proved however to be a variety of Ornithoptera remus, one of the rarest and most remarkable si>ecies of this highly esteemed group. I also obtained several other new and pretty butterflies. When we arrived at our lodging-house, being particularly anxious about my insect treasures, 1 suspended the Dox from a bamboo on which 1 could detect no sign of ants, and then began skinning some of my birds. During my work I often glanced at my precious box to see that no intruders had arrived, till after a longer spell of work than usual I looked again, and saw to my horror that a column of small red ants were descending the string and entering the box. They were already busy at work at the bodies of my treasures, and another half-hour would have seen my whole day's collection destroyed. As it was, I had to take every insect out. clean them thoroughly as well as the box, and then seek for a place of safety for them. As the only effectual one I begged a plate and a basin from my host, filled the former with water, and standing the latter in it placed my box on the top, and then felt secure for the night ; a few inches of clean water or oil being the only banker tnese terrible pests are not able to pass. On returning home to Mamiijam ^as my house was called) I had a slight return of intermittent zever, which kept me some days indoors. As soon as I was well, I a^in went to Goa, accompanied by Mr. Mesman, to beg the Rajah's assistance in getting a small house built for me near the forest. We found him at a cock-fight in a shed near his palace, which however he immediately left to receive us, and walked with us up an 168 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. inclined plane of boards which serves for stairs to his housa This was large, well built, and loft^, with bamboo floor and fflass windows. The greater part of it seemed to be one large nail divided by the supix>rting posts. Near a window sat the Queen squatting on a rough wooden arm-chair, chewing the everlasting sirih and betel- nut, while a brass spittoon by her sideand a sirili-box in front were ready to administer to her wants. The Rajah seated himself opposite to her in a similar chair, and a similar spittoon and sinh-box were held by a little boy squatting at his side. Two other chairs were brought for us. Several young women, some the Rajah^s daup^hters, others slaves, were standing about ; a few were working at frames making sarongs, but most of them were idle. And here 1 might (if I followed the example of most travellers) launch out into a glowing description oi the charms of these damsels, the elegant costumes they wore, and the gold and silver ornaments with which thev were adorned. Tlie jacket or body of purple gauze would, figure well in such a description, allowing the heavinp^ bosom to be seen beneath it. while "sparkling eyes," and "letty tresses,'* and "tiny feet' might be thrown in profusely. But, alas ! regard for truth will not permit me to expatiate too admiringly on such topics, determined as I am to ^ve as far as I can a true picture of the people and places I visit. The princesses were, it is true, suffi- ciently good-looking, yet neither their persons nor their garments had that appearance of freshness and cleanliness without which no otner charms can be contemplated with pleasure. Evervthing had a dingy and faded appearance, very disagreeable and unroyal to a European eye. The only thing that excited some degree of admiration was the quiet and dignified manner of the Rajah, and the great respect always paid to him. None can stand erect in his presence, and when ne sits on a chair, all present (Europeans of course excepted) squat upon the ground. The highest seat is literally, with these people, tlie place of honour and tlie sign of rank. So unbending are the rules in this respect, that when an English carriage which the Rajah of Lombock had sent for arrived, it was found impossible to use it because the dnver's seat was the highest, and it had to be kept as a show in its coach-house. On being told the object of my visit, the Rajah at once said that he would order a house to be emptied for me, which would be much better than building one, as that would take a good deal of time. Bad coffee and sweetmeats were given us as before. Two days afterwards I called on the Rajah, to ask him to send a guide with me to show me the house I was to occupy. He immediately ordered a man to be sent for, gave him instructions, and in a few minutes we were on our way. My conductor could speak no Malay, so we walked on in silence for an hour, when we turned into a pretty good house and I was asked to sit down. The head man of the district lived here, and in about half an XVI.] CELEBES. 169 hour we started again, and another hour's walk brought us to the villa^^e where I was to be lodged. We went to the residence of the viila^ chief, who conversed with my conductor for some time. Getting tired, I asked to be shown the house that was prepared for me, but the only reply I could get was, ** Wait a little," and the parties went on talking as before. So I told them I could not wait, as I wanted to see tne house and then to go shooting in the forest. This seemed to puzzle them, and at length, m answer to ouestion& very poorly explained by one or two bystanders who knew a little Malay, it came out that no house was ready, and no one seemed to have the least idea where to ffet one. As I did not want to trouble the Bajah any more, I thought it best to try to frighten them a little ; so I told them that if they did not immediately find me a house as the Rajah had ordered, I should go back and complain to him, but that if a house was found me I would pay tor the use of it. This had the desired efi'ect, and one of the head men of the village asked me to go with him and look for a house. He showed me one or two of the most miserable and ruinous de- scription, which I at once rejected, saying, ** I must have a g^ood one, and near to the forest" The next he showed me suited veiy well, so I told him to see that it was emptied the next dav, for tnat the day after I should come and occupy it. On the day mentioned, as I was not quite ready to go, I sent my two Macassar boys with brooms to sweep out the house thoroughly. They returned in the evening and told me, that when they got there the house was inhabited, and not a single article removed. However, on hearing they had come to clean and take possession, the occupants made a move, but, with a good deal of grumbling, which made me feel rather uneasv as to how the people generally might take my intrusion into their village. The next morning we took our baggage on three pack- horses, and, after a few br^Eik-downs, arrived about noon at our destination. After gettine all my things set straight, and having made a hasty meal, I determined if possible to make friends with the people. I therefore sent for the owner of the house and as many of his acquaintances as liked to come, to have a '^ bitchara," or talk. When they were all seated, I gave them a little tobacco all round, and having my boy Baderoon for interpreter, tried to explain to them why I came there ; that I was very sorry to turn them out of the house, but that the Hajah had orderai it rather than build a new one, which was what I had asked for, and then placed five silver rupees in the owner's hand as one month's rent. I then assured them that my being there would be a benefit to them, as I should buy their eggs and fowls and fruit ; and if their children would bring me snells and insects, of which I showed them specimens, they also might earn a good many coppers. After all this had been fully explained to them, with a long talk and discussion between every sentence, I could 170 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. see that I had made a favourable impression ; and that very afternoon, as if to test my promise to buy even miserable little snail-shells, a dozen children came one after another, bringing me a few specimens each of a small Helix, for which tliey duly received " coppers," and went away amazed but rejoicing. A few days exploration made me well acquainted with the surrounding country. I was a long way from the road in the forest which I had nrst visited, ana for some distance round my house were old clearings and cottages. I found a few good butterflies, but beetles were very scarce, and even rotten timber and newly-felled trees (^nerally so productive) here produced scarcely anything. This convinced me that there was not a sufficient extent of forest in the neighbourhood to make the place worth staying at long, but it was too late now to think of going further, as in about a month the wet season would begin ; so I resolved to stay here and get what was to be had. Un- fortunately, after a few days I became ill with a low fever which firoduced excessive lassitude and disinclination to all exertion, n vain I endeavoured to shake it off ; all I could do was to stroll quietly each day for an hour about the gardens near, and to the well, whei*e some good insects were occasionally to be found ; and the rest of the day to wait quietly at home, and receive what beetles and shells my little corps of collectors brought me daily. I imputed my illness chiefly to the water, which was procured from shallow wells, around which there was almost always a stagnant puddle in which the buffaloes wallowed. Close to my house was an inclosed mud hole where three buffaloes were shut up every night, and the effluvia from which freely entered through the open bamboo floor. My Malay boy Ali was affected with the same illness, and as he was my chief bird- skinner I got on but slowly with my collections. The occupations and mode of life of the villagers differed but little from those of all other Malay races. The time of the women was almost wholly occupied in pounding and cleaning rice for daily use, in bringing home firewood and water, and in cleaning, clyeing, spinning, and weaving the native cotton into sarongs. The weaving is done in the simplest kind of frame stretched on the floor, and is a ^ery slow and tedious process. To form the checked pattern in common use, each patch of coloured threads has to be pulled up separately by hand and the shuttle passed between tliem ; so that about an inch a day is the usual progress in stuff a yard and a half wide. The men cultivate a little sirih (the pungent pepper leaf used for chewing with betel-nut) and a tew vegetables ; and once a year rudely plough a small patch of ground with their buffaloes and plant rice, which then requires little attention till harvest time. Now and then they have to see to the repairs of their houses, and make mats, baskets, or other domestic utensils, but a large part of their time is passed in idleness. Not a single person in the village could speak more than a few XV.] CELEBES. 171 words of Malay, and hardly any of the people appeared to have seen a European before. One most disagreeable result of this was, that I excited terror alike in man and beast. Wherever £ went, dogs barked, children screamed, women ran away, and men stared as though I were some strange and terrible cannibal monster. Even the pack-horses on the roads and paths would start aside when I appeared and rush into the jungle ; and as to those horrid, ugly brutes, the buf&loes, they could never be ap- froached bv me ; not for fear of mv own but of others' safety, hey would first stick out their necks and stare at me, and then on a nearer view break loose from their halters or tethey^, and rush away helter-skelter as if a demon were after them, without any regard for what might be in their way. Whenevel^ I met buffaloes carrying packs along a pathway, or being driven home to the village, I had to turn aside into the jungle and hide mv- self till they had passed, to avoid a catastrophe which would increase the dislike with which I was already regarded. Every day about noon the buffaloes were brought into the village and were tethered in the shade around the liouses ; and then Iliad to creep about like a thief by back ways, for no one could tell what mischief they might do to children and houses were I to walk among them. If I came suddenly upon a well where women were drawing water or children bathing, a sudden flight was the certain result ; which things occurring day after day, were very unpleasant to a person who does not like to be disliked, and who had never been accustomed to be treated as an ogre. About the middle of November, finding my health no better, and insects, birds, and shells all very scarce, I determined to return to Mamdjam, and pack up my collections before the heavy rains commenced. The wind had already begun to blow from the west, and many signs indicated that the rainy season might set in earlier than usual ; and then e^'erything becomes very damp, and it is almost impossible to dry collections properly. My kind friend, Mr. Mesman, again lent me his pack- horses, and with the assistance of a few men to carrv my oiixls and insects, which I did not like to trust on horses backs, we got everything home safe. Few can imagine the luxurv it was to stretch myself on a sofa, and to take my supper comfortably at table seated in my easv bamboo chair, after having for five weeks taken all my meals uncomfortably on the floor. Such things are trifles in health, but when the body is weakened by disease the habits of a lifetime cannot be so easily set aside. Mjr house, like all bamboo structures in this country, wa^ a leaning one, the strong westerly winds of the wet season having set all its posts out of the perpendicular to such a degree, as to make me think it might some day possibly go over altogether. It is a remarkable thing that the natives of Celebes have not discovered the use of diagonal struts in strengthening buildings. I doubt if there is a native house in the country two years old and at all exposed to the wind, which stands upright ;* and no 172 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. wonder, as they merely consist of posts and joists all placed up- right or horizontal, and fastened rudely together witli rattans. They may be seen in every stage of the process of tumbling down, from the first slight inclination, to such a dangerous slope that it becomes a notice to quit to the occupiers. The mechanical geniuses of the country have only discovered two ways of remedying tlie evil. One is, after it has commenced, to tie the house to a post in the ground on the windward side by a rattan or bamboo cable. The other is a preventive, but how they ever found it out and did not discover the true way is a mystery. This plan is, to build the house in the usual way, but instead of having all the principal supports of straight posts, to have two or three of them chosen as crooked as possible. I had often noticed these crooked posts in houses, but inmuted it to the scarcity of good straight timber, till one day I met some men carrying home a post shaped something like a dog's hind le^, and inquired of my native boy what they were going to do with such a piece of wood. ** To make a post for a house," said he. " But why don't they get a straight one, there are plenty here ?" said I. " Oh," replied he. " they pi'efer some like that in a house, because then it won't fall/ evidently imputing the effect to some occult property of crooked timber. A little consideration and a diagram will, however, show, that the effect imputed to the crooked post may be really pt*oduced by it. A true square changes its figure readily into a rhomboid or oblique figure, but when one or two of the uprights are bent or sloping, and placed so as to oppose each other, the effect of a strut is proauc^, though in a rude and clumsy manner. Just before I had left Mamdjam the people had sown a con- sidei*able quantity of maize, which appears above ground in two or three days^ and in favourable seasons ripens in less than two months. Owing to a week's premature rains the ground was all flooded when I returned, and the plants just coming into ear were yellow and dead. Not a grain would l>e obtained by the whole village, but luckily it is only a luxury, not a necessary of life. The rain was the signal for ploughing to begin, in order to sow rice on all the flat lands between us and the town. The plough used is a rude wooden instrument, with a very short single handle, a tolerably well-shaped coulter, and the point formed of a piece of ham palm-wood fastened in with wedses. One or two buffaloes draw it at a very slow p^ice. The seed is sown broadcast, and a rude wooden harrow is used to smooth the surface. By the beginning of Deceml>er the regular wet season had set in. Westei'ly winds and driving rains sometimes continued for days together ; the fields for miles around were under water, and the ducks and buffaloes enioyed themselves amazingly. All along the road to Macassar ploughing was daily going on in the mud and water, through which the wooden plougii easily makes its way, the ploughman holding the plough handle with one hand XV.] CELEBES. 173 while a long bamboo ia the other serves to guide the bufialoes. These animals require an immense deal of ariviog to get them on at all ; a continual shower of exclamations is kept up at them, and " Oh ! ah ! gee ! ugh !" are to be heard in vanous keys and in an uninterrupted succession all day long. At night we were favoured with a different kind of concert. The dry g^round around my house had become a marsh tenanted by irogs, who kept up a most incredible noise froni dusk to dawn. The)[ were somewnat musical too, having a deep vibrating note which at times closely resembles the tuning of two or three bass-viols in an orchestra. In Malacca and Borneo I had heard no such sounds as these, which indicates that the fro^ like most of the animals of Celebes, are of species peculiar to it. My kind friend and landlord, Mr. Mesman, was a good speci- men of the Macassar-bom Dutchman. He wa« about thirty-five years of age, had a larj^e famil;^i and lived in a spacious house near the town, situated in the midst of a grove of fruit trees, and surrounded by a perfect labyrinth of offices, stables, and native cottages occupied by his numerous servants, slaves, or depend- ants. He usually rose before the sun, and after a cup of CofTee looked after his servants, horses, and dogs, till seven, when a substantial breakfast of rice and meat was ready in a cool verandah. Putting on a clean white linen suit, he then drove to town in his buggy, where he had an office, with two or three Chinese clerks who looked after his afloirs. His business was that of a coffee and opium merchant. Ho hod a coffee estate at Bontyne, and a small prau which traded to the Eastern islands near New Guinea, for mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell. About one he would return home, havecoffeeand cake or fried plantain, first changing his dress for a coloured cotton shirt and trousers and bare fee^ and then take a siesta with a book. About four, 174 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. after a cup of tea, he would walk round his premises, and generally stroll down to Mam^jam, to pay me a \isit and look after his farm. This consisted of a coffee plantation and an orchard of fruit trees, a dozen horses and a score of cattle, with a small village of Timorese slaves and Macassar servants. One family looked after the cattle and supplied the house with milk, bringing me also a large glassful every morning, one of my greatest luxuries. Others had charge of the horses, which were brought in every afternoon and fed with cut grass. Others had to cut grass for their master's horses at Macassar — not a very easv task in the dry season, when all the country looks like bakea mud : or in the rainy season, when miles in every direction are flooded. How they managed it was a mystery to me, but they know grass must be had, and they ^et it. One lame woman had charge of a flock of ducks. Twice a day she took them out to feed m the marshy places, let them waddle and gobble for an hour or two, and then drove them back and shut them up in a small dark shed to digest their meal, whence they gave forth occasionally a melancholy quack. Every night a watch was set, principally for the sake of the horses, the people of Gk>a, only two miles off, being notorious thieves, and norses offering the easiest and most valuable spoil. This enabled me to sleep in security, although many people in Macassar thought I was running a great risk, living alone in such a solitary place and with such bad neighbours. My house was surrounded by a kind of straggling hedge of roses, jessamines, and other flowers, and every morning one of the women gathered a basketful of the blossoms for Mr. Mesman's family. I generally took a couple for my own breakfast table, and the supply never failed during mv stay, and I suppose never does. Almost every Sunday Mr. M. maae a shooting excursion with his eldest son, a lad oi fifteen, and I generally accompanied him ; for though the Dutch are Pro- testants, they do not observe Sunday in the rigid manner practised in England and English colonies. The Governor of the place has his public reception every Sunday evening, when card-playing is the regular amusement. On December 13th I went on board a prau bound for the Am Islands, a ioumey which will be described in the latter part of this work. On my return, after a seven months' absence, I visited another district to the north of Macassar, which will form the subject of the next chapter. XYX.1 CELEBES. 175 CHAPTER XVI. CELEBES. (MACASSAR. JULY TO NOVEMBKB, 1857.) I REACHED Macassar again on the 11th of July, and estab- lished myself in my old quarters at Mamdjam, to sort, arrange, clean, and pack up my Aru collections. This occupied me a montli ; and having shipped them off for Singapore, had my guns repaired, and received a new one from England, together with a stock of pins, arsenic, and other collecting requisites, I began to feel eager for work again, and had to consider where I should spend my time till the end of the year. I had left Macassar, seven months before, a flooded marsn, being ploughed up for the rice-sowing. The rains had continued for Ave months, yet now all the rice was cut, and dry and dusty stubbles covered the country just as when I had first arrived there. After much inquir;^ I determined to visit the district of Mdros, about thirty miles north of Macassar, where Mr. Jacob Mesman, a brother of my friend, resided, who had kindly oflered to find me house-room and give me assistance should I feel inclined to visit him. I accordingly obtained a pass from the Resident, and having hired a boat setoff one evenmgfor M4ros. My boy Ali wtf^ so ill with fever that I was obliged to leave him in the tiospital, under the care of my friend the German doctor, and I had to make shift with two new servants utterly ignorant of everything. We coasted along during the night, and at day- break enter the Mdros river, and by three in the afternoon reached the village. I immediately visited the Assistant Resident, and appfied for ten men to carry my baggage, and a horse for myself. These were promised to be ready that niffht, so that I could start as soon as I liked in the morning. Alter having taken a cup of tea I took my leave, and slept in the boat. Some of the men came at night as promised, but others did not arrive till the next morning. It took some time to divide my baggage fairly among them, as thev all wanted to shirk the heavy Doxes, and would seize hold of some light article and marcn off with it, till made to come back and wait till the whole had been fairly apportioned. At length about eieht o^clock all was arranged, and we started for our walk to Mr. M.'s farm. The country was at first a uniform plain of bumt-up rice- grounds, but at a few miles distance precipitous hills appeared, backed by the lofty central ran^e of the peninsula. Towards these our path lay, and after having gone six or eight miles the hills began to advance into the plain right and left of us, and 17C THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. the ground became pierced here and there with blocks and pillars of limestone rock, while a few abrupt conical hills and peaks rose like islands, rassing over an elevated tract forming the shoulder of one of the hills, a picturesque scene lay before us. We looked down into a little valley almost entirely surrounded by mountains, rising abruptly in huge precipices, and forminff a succession of knoUs and peaks and domes of the most varied and fantastic shapes. In the very centre of the valley was a large bamboo house, while scattered around were a dozen cottages of the same material. I was kindly i*eceived by Mr. Jacob Mesman in an airy saloon detached from the house, and entirel v built of bamboo and thatched with grass. After breakfast he took me to his foreman's house, about a hundred yards off, half of which was ffiven up to me till I should decide where to have a cottage built for my own use. I soon found that this spot was too much exposed to the wind and dust, which rendered it very difficult U> work with papers or insects. It was also dreadfullv hot in the afternoon, and after a few days I got a sharp attack of fever, which determined me to move. I accordingly fixed on a place about a mile off, at the foot of a forest-covered hill, where in a few days Mr. M. built for me a nice little house, consisting of a gooa-sized enclosed verandah or open room, ana a small inner sleeping-room, with a little cook-house outside. As soon as it was miished I moved into it, and found the change most agreeable. The forest which surrounded me was open and free from underwood, consisting of large trees, widely scattered with a great quantity of palm-trees (Arenga saccharifera), from which palm wine and su^ar are made. There were also great numbers of a wild Jack-fruit tree (Artocarpus), which bore abundance of large reticulated fruit, serving as an excellent vegetable. ^ The f round was as thickly covered with dry leaves as it is in an Inglish wood in November ; the little rocky streams were all dry, and scarcely a drop of water or even a damp place was anywhere to be seen. About fifty yards below my house, at the foot of the hill, was a deep hole in a watercourse where good water was to be had, and where I went daily to bathe, by having buckets of water taken out and pouring it over my body. My host Mr. M. enjoyed a thoroughly country life, depending almost entirely on his gun and do^s to supply his table. Wild pigs of large size were very plentiful, ana he generally got one or two a week, besides deer occasionally, and abundance of jungle-fowl, horn bills, and g^reat fruit pigeons. His buffaloes supplied pjlenty of milk, from which he made his own butter ; he grew his own rice and coffee, and had ducks, fowls, and their eggs in profusion. His palm-trees supplied him all the vear round with **sagueir,' which takes the place of beer : and. the sugar made from them is an excellent sweetmeat. All the fine zvi.J CELEBES. 177 toopical T^etables and fruits were abuiiilHiit iu their season, and his cigars were mtule from tobacco of his own raising;. He kindly sent me a bamboo of buffalo-milk every morning : it was as thick as cream, aad required diluting with water to Keep it fluid during the day. It mixes very well with tea and coffee, although it has a slight peculiar flavour, which after a time is . (Arnta (Htkar^ftr*.) not disagreeable. I also got aa much sweet "sagueir" as I liked to drink, and Mr. M. always sent me a piece of each pig he killed, which with fowls, eggs, and the birds we shot our- selves, and buffalo beef about once a fortnight, kept my larder sufficiently well supplied. Every bit of flat land was cleared and used aa rice-fields, and 178 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. on the lower slopes of many of the hills tobacco and vegetables were grown, most of the slopes are covered with huge blocks of rock, very fatiguing to scramble over, while a number of the hills are so precipitous as to be quite inaocessible. These cir- cumstances, combined with the excessive drought, were very unfavourable for my pursuits. Birds were scarce, and I got but few new to me. Insects were tolerablv plentiful, but un- equal Beetles, usually so numerous and interesting, were exceedingly scarce, some of the families bein^ quite absent and others only represented by very minute species. The Flies and Beesj on the other hand, were abundant, and of these I daily obtained new and interesting species. ^ The rare and beautiful Butterflies of Celebes were the cliief object of my search, and I found man^ species altogether new to me, but they were gene- rally so active and shy as to render their capture a matter of great difficulty. Almost the only good place for them was in the dry beds of the streams in the forest, where, at damp places, muddy pools, or even on the dry rocks, all sorts of insects ooula be founa. In these rocky forests dwell some of tlie finest butter- flies in the world. Three species of Omithoptera, measuring seven or eight inches across the wings, and beautifully marked with spots or masses of satiny yellow on a black ground, wheel through the thickets with a strong sailing flight. About the damp places are swarms of the beautiful blue-banded Papilios. miletus and telephus, the superb golden green P. mskcedon, ana the rare little swallow-tail Papilio rhesus, of all of which, though very active, I succeeded in capturing fine series of specimens. I have rarely enjoyed myself more than during my residence here. As I sat taking my coffee at six in the morning, rare birds would often be seen on some tree close by, w^hen I would hastily sally out in my slippers, and perhaps secure a prize I had been seeking after for weeks. The gre^t hombills of Celebes (Buceros cassidix^ would often come with loud-flapping, wings, and perch upon a lofty tree just in front of me ; ana the black baboon monkeys, Cynopithecus nigrescens. often stared down in astonishment at such an intrusion into tneir domains ; while at night herds of wild pigs roamed about the house, de- vouring refuse, and obliging us to put away everything eatable or breakable from our little cooking-house. A few minutes' search on the fallen trees around my house at sunrise and sun- set, would often produce me more beetles than I would meet with in a day's collecting, and odd moments could be made valuable which when living in villages or at a distance from the forest are inevitably wasted. Where the sugar-palms were dripping with sap, flies congi'egated in immense numbers, and it was by spending half an hour at these when I had the time to spare, that I obtained the finest and most remarkable collection of this group of insects that I have ever made. Then what delightful hours I passed wandering up and down the dry river-courses, full of water-holes and rocks and fallen XVI.] CELEBES. 179 trees, and overshadowed by magnificent vegetation! I soon got to know every hole and rock and stump, and came up to each with cautious step and bated breath to see what treasures it would produce. At one place I would find a little crowd of the rare butterfly Tachyris zarinda. which would rise up at my approach, and display their vivia orange and cinnabar-red wings, while amongthem would flutter a few of the fine blue- bana^ Papilios. W here leafy branches hung over the g^uUy, I might expect> to find a grand Ornithoptera at rest and an easy prev. At certain rotten trunks I was sure to get the curious little tiger beetle. Therates flavilabris. In the denser thickets I would capture the small metallic blue butterflies (Amblypodia) sitting on the leaves, as well as some rare and beautiful leaf- beetles of the families Hispidse and Chrysomelidse. I found that the rotten jack-fruits were very attractive to many beetles, and used to split them partly open and lay them about in the forest near my house to rot. A mornine^s search at these often produced me a score of species,— Staphylinidse, Nitidulidse, Onthophagi, and minute Carabidae being the most abundant. Now and then the " sa^ueir '' makers brought me a fine rosechafer (Sternoplus schaumii) which they found licking up the sweet sap. Almost the only new birds I met with for some time were a handsome ground thrush (Pitta celebensis), and a beautiful violet-crowned dove (Ptilonopus celebensis), both very similar to birds I had recently obtained at Aru, but of distinct species. About the latter part of September a heavy shower of rain fell, admonishing us that we might soon expect wet weather, much to the advantage of the baked-up country. I therefore determined to pay a visit to the falls of the Mdros river, situated at the point where it issuer from the mountains — a spot often visited by travellers and considered very beautiful. Mr. M. lent me a horse, and I obtained a guide from a neigh- bouring village ; and taking one of my men with me, we started at six in the morning, and after a ride of two hours over the flat rice-fields skirting the mountains which rose in grand pre- cipices on our left, we reached the river about half-way between Maros and the falls, and thence had a good bridle-road to our destination, which we reached in another hour. The hills had closed in round us as we advanced ; and when we reached a ruinous shed which had been erected for the accommodation of visitors, we found ourselves in a flat-bottomed valley about a quarter of a mile wide, bounded by precipitous and often over- hanging limestone rocks. So far the ground had been cultivated, but it now became covered with bushes and large scattered trees. As soon as my scanty baggage had arrived and was duly dei>osited in the shed, I started off alone for the fall, which was about a quarter of a mile further on. The river is here about twenty yards wide, and issues from a chasm between two vertical N 2 180 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. walls of liuiestone, oyer a rounded mass of basaltic rock about forty feet high, forming two curves separated by a slight ledge. The water spreads beautifully over this surface in a thin sheet of foam, which curls and eddies in a succession of concentric cones till it falls into a fine deep pool below. Close to the very edge of the fall a narrow and very rugged path leads to the river above, and tlience continues close unaer the precipice alonff the water's edge, or sometimes in the water, for a few hunofred yards, after wnich the rocks recede a little, and leave a wooded bank on one side, along which the path is continued, till in about half a mile a second and smaller fall is reached. Here the river seems to issue from a cavern, the rocks having fallen from above so as to block up the channel and bar further pro- gress. The fall itself can only be reached by a path which ascends behind a huge slice of rock which has partly fallen away from the mountain, leaving a space two or three feet wide, but disclosing a dark chasm descending into the bowels of the mountain, and which, having visited several such, I had no great curiosity to explore. Crossing the stream a little below the upper fall, the path ascends a steep slope for about five hundred feet, and passing through a gap enters a narrow valley, shut in by walls of rock absolutely perpendicular and of great height. Half a mile further this valley turns abruptly to the right, and becomes a mere rift in the mountain. This extends another half mile, the walls gradually approaching till they are only two feet apart, and the bottom nsmg steeply to a juiss which leads probably . into another valley, but which I had no time to explore. Re- turninff to where this rift had begun, the main path turns up to the left in a sort of gully, and reaches a summit over which a fine natural arch of rock passes at a height of about fifty feet. Thence was a steep descent through thick jungle with glimpses of precipices and distant rocky mountains, probably leaaing into the main river valley again. This was a most tempting region to explore, but there were several reasons why I could go no further. I had no guide, and no permission to enter the Bug^s territories, and as the rains might at any time set in, I might be prevented from returning by the flooding of the river. I therefore devoted myself during the short time of my visit to obtaining what knowledge I could of the natural productions of the place. The narrow chasms produced several fine insects quite new to me, and one new bird, the curious Phlsegenas tristigmata, a large ground pigeon with yellow breast and crown, and purple neck. This rugged path is the highway from M^ros to the Bu^s country beyona the mountains. During the rainy season it IS quite impassable, the river filling its bed and rushing between perpendicular clifis many hundred feet high. Even at the time of my visit it was most precipitous and fatiguing, yet women and children came over it daily, and men carrying XVI.] CELEBES. 181 heavy loads of palm sugar of very little value. It was along the path between the lower and the upper falls, and about the mai^n of the upper pool, that I founa most insects. The large semi-transparent butterfly, Idea tondana, flew lazilv along by dozens, and it was here that I at length obtained an insect which I had hoped but hai'dly expected to meet with — ^the magnificent Papilio androcles, one of the largest and rarest known swallow-tailed butterflies. During my four days' stay at the falls I was so fortunate as to obtain six good specimens. Ajs this beautiful ci*eature flies, the long white tails flicker like streamers, and when settled on the beach it carries them raised upwards, as if to preserve them from injury. It is scarce even here, as I did not see more than a dozen specimens in all, and had to follow many of them up and down the river's bank repeatedly before I succeeded in their capture. When the sun shone hottest about noon, the moist beach of the pool below the upper fall presented a beautiful sight, being dotted with groups or gay butterflies, — orange, yellow, white, blue, and green, — which on being disturbed rose into the air by hundreds, forming clouds of variegated colours. Such gorges, chasms, and precipices as here abound, I have nowhere seen in the Archipelago. A sloping surface is scarcelv anywhere to l)e found, huge walls and rugged masses of rock terminating all the ;nountains and inclosing the valleys. In many parts there are vertical or even overhanging precipices five or six hundred feet high, yet completely clothed with a tapestry of vegetation. Ferns, Pandanacese, shrubs, creepers, and even foi*est trees, are mingled in an evergreen network, through the interstices of whicli appears the white limestone rock or the dark holes and chasms with which it abounds. These precipices are enabled to sustain such an amount of vegetation by tlieir peculiar structure. Their sui'faces are very irregular, broken into holes and fissures, with ledges overhang- ing the mouths of gloomy caverns ; but from each projecting part have descended stalactites, often forming a wild gothic tracery over the caves and receding hollows, and aflbrding an admirable support to the roots of the shrubs, ti*ees, and creepers, which luxuriate in the warm pure atmosphere and the gentle moisture which constantly exudes from the rocks. In places where the precipice oflers smooth surfaces of solid rock, it remains quite bare, or only stained with lichens and dotted with clumps of ferns that grow on the small ledges and in the minutest crevices. The reader who is familiar with tropical nature onl^r through the medium of books and botanical gardens, will picture to himself in such a spot many other natural? beauties. He will think that I have unaccountably forgotten to mention the brilliant flowers, which, in gorgeous masses of crimson, gold, or azure, must spangle these verdant precipices, hang over the cascade, and adorn the margin of the mountain stream. But 182 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. what is the reality ? In vain did I gaze over these vast walls of verdure, among the pendant creepers and bushy shrubs, all around the cascade, on the river s bank, or in the deep caverns and gloomy fissures^ — not one single spot of bright colour could be seen ; not one single tree or bush or creeper bore a flower sufficiently conspicuous to form an object in the landscape. In every direction the eye rested on green foliage and mottled rock. There was infinite variety in the colour and aspect of the foliage, there was grandeur in the rocky masses and in the exuberant luxuriance of the vegetation, but there was no brilliancy of colour, none of those ori^ht flowers and gorgeous masses of blossom^ so generally considered to be everywhere present in the tropics. I have here given an accurate sketch of a luxuriant tropical scene as noted down on the spot, and its general characteristics as regards colour have been so often repeated, both in South America and over many thousand miles in the Eastern tropics, that I am driven to conclude that it represents the general aspect of nature in the equatorial (that is, the most tropical) parts of the tropical regions. How is it then, that the descriptions of travellers generally give a very different idea 7 And where, it may be asked, are the glorious flowers that we know do exist in the tropics ? These questions can be easily answered. The fine tropical flowering-plants cultivated in our hot-houses ; have been culled from the most varied regions, and therefore give a most erroneous idea of their abundance in any one region. Many of them are vei^ rare, others extremely local, while a considerable number inhabit the more arid regions of Africa and India, in which tropical vegetation does not exhibit itself in its usual luxuriance. Fine and varied foliage, rather than gay flowers, is more character- istic of those parts where tropical vegetation attains its highest development, and in such districts each kind of flower seldom lasts in perfection more than a few weeks, or sometimes a few days. In every locality a lengthened residence will show an abundance of magnificent and gaily -blossomed plants, but they have to be sought for, and are rarely at any one time or place so abundant as to form a perceptible feature in the landscape. But it has been the custom of travellers to describe and group together all the fine plants they have met with during a long journey, and tlius produce the effect of a gay and flower-painted landscape. They have rarely studied and aescribed individual scenes where vegetation was most luxuriant and beautiful, and fairly stated what effect was produced in them by flowers. I have done so frequently, and the result of these examinations lias convinced me, that the bright colours of flowers have a much greater influence on the general aspect of nature in temperate uian in tropical climates. During twelve years spent amid the grandest tropical vegetation, I have seen nothing comparable to the effect produced on our landscapes by gorse, broom, heather, wild hyacinths, hawthorn, purple orchises, and buttercups. XVI.] CELEBES. 18S The geological structure of this part of Celebes is interesting. The limestone mountains, though of great extent, seem to be entirely superficial, resting on a basis of basalt which in some places forms low rounded hills between the more precipitous mountains. In the rocky beds of the streecially as the strong westerly winds would render the passage in a small open boat disagreeable if not dangerous. Since the rains began, numbers of huge niillix)edes, as thick as one's finger and eight or ten inches long, crawled about every- where, in the paths, on trees, about the house, — and one morning when I got up I even found one in my bed ! They were generally of a dull lead colour or of a deep brick red, and were very nasty-looking things to be coming everywhere in one's way, although quite harmless. Snakes too began to show themselves. I killed two of a very abundant species, big-headed and of a bright green colour, which lie coiled up on leaves and shrubs and can scarcely be seen till one is close upon them. Brown snakes got into my net while beating among dead leaves for insects, and made me rather cautious about inserting my hand till I knew what kind of game I had captured. The fields and meadows which had been parched and sterile now became suddenly covered with fine long grass ; the river-bed where I had so many times walked over burning rocks, was now a deep and rapid stream ; and numbers of herbaceous plants and shrubs were everywhere springing up and bursting into flower. I found plenty of new insect^s, and if I had had a good, roomy, water-and-wind-proof house, I should perhaps have stayed during the wet season, as I feel sure many thin^ can then be obtained which are to be found at no other time. With my summer hut, however, this was impossible. During the heavy rains a fine drizzly mist penetrated into every part of it, and I began to have the g^reatest difi&culty in keeping my specimens dry. Early in November I returned to Macassar, and having packed up my collections, started in the Dutch mail steamer for Amboyna and Ternate. Leaving this part of my journey for the present, I will in the next chapter conclude my account of Celebes by describing the extreme northern part of the island which I visited two years later. • XTU.] CELEBES. 185 CHAPTER XVII. GKLEBE8. (MENADO. JUNE TO SEPTEMBEB, 1859.) It was after my residence at Timor-Coupang that I visited the north-eastern extremity of Celebes, touching on my way at Banda, Amboyna, and Ternate. I reached Menado on the 10th of June» 1869, and was very kindly received by Mr. Tower, an Englishman, but a very old resident in Menado, where he carries on a general business. He introduced me to Mr. L. Duivenboden (whose father had been my friend at Ternate), who had much taste for natural history ; and to Mr. Neys, a native of Menado, but who was educated at Calcutta, and to wliom Dutch, English, and Malay were equally mother-tongues. All these gentlemen showed me the greatest kindness, accompanied me in my earli4l|t walks about the country, and assisted me by every means in their power. I spent a week in the town very pleasantly, making explorations and inquiries after a good collecting station, which I had much difficulty in finding, owing to the wide cultivation of coffee and cacao, which has Jed to the clear- ing away of the forests for many miles round the town, and over extensive districts far into the interior. The little town of Menado is one of the prettiest in the East. It has the appearance of a large garden containing rows of rustic villas, with broad paths between, forming streets generally at right angles with each other. Good roads branch off in several directions towards the interior, with a succession of pretty cottages, neat gardens, and thriving plantations, inter- spersed with wildernesses of fruit trees. To the west and south the country is mountainous, with groups of fine volcanic peaks 6,000 or 7,000 feet high, forming grand and picturesque back- grounds to the landscape. The inhabitants of Minahasa (as this part of Celebes is called) differ much from those of all the rest or the island, and in fact from any other people in the Archipelago. They are of a light- brown or yellow tint, often approaching the fairness of a European ; of a rather short stature, stout and well-made ; of an open and pleasing countenance, more or less disfigured as age increases by projecting cheek-bones ; and with the usual long, straight, jet-blacK hair of the Malayan races. In some of the inland villages where they may be supposed to be of the purest race, both men and women are remarkably handsome ; while nearer the coasts where the purity of their blood has been de- stroyed by the intermixture of other races, they approach to ISe THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. the ordinary types of the wild inhabitants of the surrounding countries. In mental and moral characteristics they are also higlily peculiar. Thev are remarkably quiet and gentle in disposition, submissive to the authority of those they consider their superiors, and easily induced to learn and adopt the habits of civilized people. They are clever mechanics, and seem capable of acquiring a considerable amount of intellectual education. Up to a very recent period these people were thorough savages, and there are pei^ns now living m Menado who re- member a state of things identical with that described by the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The in- habitants of the several villages were distinct tribes, each under its own chief, speaking languages unintelligible to each other, and almost always at war. They built their houses elevatea upon lofty posts to defend themselves from the attacks of their enemies. Ttiey were head hunters like the Dyaks of Borneo, and were said to oe sometimes cannibals. When a chief died, his tomb was adorned with two fresh human heads ; and if those of enemies could not be obtained, slaves were killed for the occasion. Ehiman skulls were the great ornaments of the chiefs' houses. Strips of bark were their only dress. The country was a pathless wilderness, with small cultivated patches of rice and vegetables, or clumps of fruit-trees, diversitying the otherwise unbroken forest. Their religion was that naturally engendered in the un- developed human mind by the contemplation of grand natural phenomena and the luxuriance of tropical nature. The burning mountain, the torrent and the lake, were the abode of their deities: and certain trees and biras were supposed to have especial influence over men's actions and destiny. They held wud and exciting festivals to propitiate these deities or demons ; and believed that men could be changed by them into animals, either during life or after death. Here we have a picture of true savage life : of small isolated communities at war with all around them, subject to the wants, and miseries of such a condition, drawing a precarious existence from the luxuriant soil, and living on from generation to genera- tion, with no desire for physical amelioration, and no prospect of moral advancement. Such was their condition down to the year 1822, when the coffee-plant was first introduced, and expenments were made as to its cultivation. It was found to succeed admirably at from fifteen hundred up to four thousand feet above the sea. The chiefs of villages were induced to undertake its cultivation. Seed and native instructors were sent from Java ; food was supplied to the labourers engaged in clearing and planting ; a fixed price was established at which all conee brought to the government collectors was to be paid for, and the village chiefs who now received the title of " Majors " were to receive ^ve per cent, of the produce. After a time, roads were made from the XVII.] CELEBES. 187 port of Menado up to the plateau, and smaller paths were cleared from village to village ; missionaries settled in the more populous districts and opened schools, and Chinese traders penetrated to the interior ana supplied clothing and other luxuries in exchange for the money whicn the sale of the coffee had produced. At the same time, the countrv was divided into districts, and the system of '* Controlleurs," which had worked so well in Ja^a, was in- troduced. The " Controlleur " was a European, or a native of European blood, who was the general superintendent of the cultivation of the district, the adviser of the chiefs, the protector of the people, and the means of communication between both and the European Qovernment. His duties obliged him to visit every village m succession once a month, and to send in a report on their condition to tlie Resident. As disputes between adjacent villages were now settled by appeal to a superior authority, the old and inconvenient semi-fortified houses were disused, and under the direction of the " ControUeurs " most of the houses were rebuilt on a neat and uniform plan. It was this interesting district which I was now about to visit. Having decided on my route, I stai^ted at 8 a.m. on the 22nd of June. Mr. Tower drove me the first three miles in his chaise, and Mr. Neys accompanied mo on horseback three miles further to the village of Lotta. Here we met the Controlleur of the district of Tonddno, who was returning home from one of his monthly tours, and who had agreed to act as my guide and com- panion on the journey. From Lotta we had an almost continual ascent for six miles, which brought us on to the plateau of Tonddno at an ele^'ation of about 2.400 feet. We passed through three villages whose neatness and beauty quite astonished me. The main road, along which all the coffee is brought down from the interior in carts drawn by buffaloes, is always turned aside at the entrance of a village, so as to pass behind it, and thus allow the village street itself to be kept neat and clean. This is bordered by neat hedges often formed entirely of rose-trees, which are perpetuaUy in olossom. There is a broad central path and a border of fine turf, which is kept well swept and neatly cut. The houses are all of wood, raised about six feet on sub- stantial posts neatly painted blue, while the walls are white- washed. They all have a verandah enclosed with a neat balus- trade, and are generally surrounded by orange-trees and flower- ing shrubs. The surrounding scenery is verdant and picturesque. Coffee plantations of extreme luxuriance, noble palms and tree fem& wooded hills and volcanic peaks, everywhere meet the eye. I haa heard much of the beauty of this country, but the reality far surpassed mv expectations. About one o'clock we reached Tomohdn, the chief place of a district, having a native chief now called the " Major, at whose house we were to dine. Here was a fresh surprise for me. The house was large, airy, and verv substantially built of hard native timber, squared and put together in a most workmanlike manner. 188 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [oh. xvii. It was furnished in European style, with handsome chandelier lamps, and the chairs ana tables all well made by native work- men. As soon as we entered, madeira and bitters were offered ua Then two handsome boyb, neatly dressed in white and with smoothly brushed jet-black hair, handed us each a basin of water and a clean napkin on a salver. The dinner was excellent. Fowls cooked in various ways, wild pig roasted, stewed and fri^, a fricassee of bats, potatoes, rice, and other vegetables, all served on good china, with finger glasses and fine napkins, and abun- dance of good claret ana beer, seemed to me nitlier curious at the table of a native chief on the mountains of Celebes. Our host was dressed in a suit of black with patent-leather shoes, and really looked comfortable and almost gentlemanly in them. He sat at the head of the table and did the honours well, though he did not talk much. Our conversation was entiie no laughing matter. At length the evening got very cold, and I became very sleepy, and determined to turn in, leaving ordera to my boys, who slept nearer the door, to wake me in case the house was in danger of falling. But I miscalculated m^r apathv, for I could not sleep much. The shocks continued at intervals of half an hour or an hour all night, just strong enough to wake me thoroughly each time and keep me on.tne alert ready to jump up in case of danger. I was therefore very glad when morning XVII.] CELEBES^ 198 came. Most of tlie inhabitants had not been to bed at all, and some had stayed out of doors all night. For the next two days and nights sliocks still continued at short intervals, and several times a day for a week, showing that there was some very exten- sive disturbance beneath our portion of the earth's crust. How vast the forces at work really are can only be properly appreciated when, after feeling their enects, we look abroad over the wide expanse of hill and valley, plain and mountain, and thus realize in a slight degree the immense mass of matter heaved and shaken. The sensation produced by an earthquake is never to be forgot- ten. We feel ourselves in the grasp of a power to which the wildest fury of the winds and waves are as nothing ; yet the effect is more a thrill of awe than the terror which the more boisterous war of the elements produces. There is a mystery and an uncertainty as to the amount of danger we incur, which gives greater play to the imagination, and to the influences of hope and fear. These remarks apply only to a moderate eai*th- quake. A severe one is the most destructive and the most horrible catastrophe to which human beings can be exposed. A few days after the earth c|uake I took a walk to Tonddno, a larffe village of about 7,000 inhabitants, situated at the lower end of the lake of the same name. I dined with the Controlleur, Mr. Bensneider, who had been my guide to Tomohdn. He had a fine large house, in which he often received visitors ; and his garden was the best for flowers which I had seen in the tropics, although there was no great variety. It was he who introduced the rose hedges which give such a charming appearance to the villages ; and to him is chiefly due the general neatness and good order that everywhere prevail. I consulted him about a fresh locality, as I found Buriikan too much in the clouds, dreadfully damp and gloomy, and with a general stagnation of bird and insect life. He recommended me a village some distance beyond the lake, near which was a large forest, where he thought I should find plenty of birds. As he was going himself in a few days I decided to accompany him. After dinner I asked him for a guide to the celebrated water- fall on the outlet stream of the lake. It is situated about a mile and a half below the village, wliere a slight rising ground closes in the Imsin, and evidently once formed the shore of the lake. Here tlie river enters a gorge, very narrow and tortuous, along which it rushes furiously for a short distance and then plunges into a great chasm, forniing the head of a lai^e valley. Just above the tall the channel is not more than ten ^t wide, and here a few planks are tlirown across, whence, half hid by luxuriant vegetation, tlie mad waters may be seen rushing beneath, and a few feet farther plunge into the abyss. Both sight and sound are grand and impressive. It was here that, four years before my visit, a former (xovernor of the Moluccas committed suicide, by leaping into the torrent. This at least is the general opinion, as hesuflered from a painful disease which o 194 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. was supposed to have made him weary of his life. His body was found next day in the stream below. TJnf oi*tunately, no good view of the fall could now be obtained, owin^ to the quantitjr of wood and high grass that lined the margins of the precipices. There are two tails, the lower being the most lofty ; and it is possible, by a lonff circuit, to descend into the vallev and see them from below. Were the best points of view searched for and rendered accessible, these falls would probably be found to be the finest in the Archipelago. The chasm seems to be of great depth, probably 600 or 600 feet. Unfortunately I had no time to explore this valley, as I was anxious to devote every fine day to increasing my hitherto scanty collections. Just opposite my abode in Eurukan was the school- house. The schoolmaster was a native, educated by the Missionary at Tomohon. School was held e\ery morning for about three hours, and twice a week in the evening there was catechising and preaching. There was also a service on Sunday morning. The cliildren were all taught in ^lalay, and I often heard them repeating the multiplication- table up to twenty times twenty very glibly. They always wound up with singing, and it was very pleasing to hear many of our old -psalm -tunes in these remote mountains, sung witli Malay words. Singing is one of the real blessings which Missionaries introduce among savage nations, whose native chants are almost always monotonous and melancholy. On catechising evenings the schoolmaster was a great man, preaching and teaching for three hours at a stretch much in the style of an English ranter. This was pretty cold work for his auditors, however warming to himself \ and I am inclined to think that these native teachers, having acquired facility of sneaking and an endless supply of religious platitudes to talk about, ride their hobby rather hard, without much consideration for their flock. The Missionaries, however, have much to be proud of in this country. They have assisted tlie Glovernment in changing a siivage into a civilized community in a wonder- fully short space of time. Forty years ago the country was a wilderness, the people naked savages, garnishing their rude houses with human beads. Now it is a garden, worthy of its sweet native name of " Minahasa." Good roads and paths traverse it in every direction ; some of the finest coffee plan- tations in the world surround the villages, intenspersed with extensive rice-fields more than suflicient for the support of the population. The people are now the most industrious, peaceable, and civilizea in the whole Archipelago. They are the best clothed, tiie best housed, the best fed, and the best educated ; and they have made some progress towards a higher social state. I believe there is no example elsewhere of such striking results being produced in so short a time — results which are entirely zvii.] CELEBES. 195 due to the system of government now adopted by the Dutch ia their Eastern possessions. The system is one which may be called a " paternal despotism." Now we Englishmen do not like despotism — we hate the name and the thing, and we would rather see people ignorant, lazy, and vicious, than use any but moral force to make them wise, industrious, and good. And we are right when we are dealing with men of our own race, and of similar ideas and equal capacities with ourselves. Example and precept, the force of public opinion^ and the slow, but sure spread of education, will do everything in time ; without engendering any of those bitter feelings, or producing any of that servilitv, hypocrisy, and dependence, whicli are the sure results of a aespotic government. But what should we think of a man who should advocate these principles of perfect freedom in a family or a school ? We should sav that he was applying a {^d general principle to a case in which the conditions rendered it inapplicable — the case in which the governed are in an admitt^ state of mental inferiority to those who govern them, and are unable to decide what is best for their permanent welfare. Children must be subjected to some degree of author- ity and guidance ; and if properly managed they will cheerfully submit to it, because they know their own inferiority, and believe their elders are acting solely for their good. They learn many things the use of which they cannot comprehend, and which they would never learn without some iriorai and social if not physical pressure. Habits of order, of industry, of clean- liness, of respect and obedience, are inculcated by similar means. Children would never grow up into well-behaved and and well- educated men, if the same absolute freedom of action that is allowed to men were allowed to them. Under the best aspect of education, children are subjected to a mild despotism tor the good of themselves and of society ; and their confidence in the wisdom and goodness of those who ordain and apply this despotism, neutralizes the bad passions and degrading feelings, which under less favourable conditions are its general results. Now, there is not mereljr an analogy,— there is in many respects an identity of relation, l)etween master and pupil or parent and child on the one hand, and an uncivilized race and Its civilized rulers on the other. We know (or think we know) that the education and industry, and the common usages of civilized man, are superior to those of savage life ; and, as he becomes acquainted with them, the savage himself admits this. He admires the superior acquirements of the civilized man, and it is with pride that he will adopt such usages as do not interfere too much with his sloth, his passions, or liis prejudices. But as the wilful child or the idle schoolboy, who was never taught obedience, and never made to do anything which of his own free will he was not inclined to do, would in most cases obtain neither education nor manners ; so it is niuch more unlikely that the savage, with all the coniirmed habits of man- o 2 196 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. hood and the traditional prejudices of race, should ever do more than copy a few of the least b^^neiicial customs of civilization, without some stronger stimulus ^han precept, very imperfectly backed by example. If wo ai*e satisfied that we are right in assuming the govern- ment over a savage race, and occupving their country ; and if we further consider it our duty to do what we can to improve our rude subjects and raise them up towards our own level, we must not )je too much afraid of the cry of ** despotism " and "slavery," but must use the authority we possess to induce them to do work, which they may not altogether like, but wluch we know to be an indispensable step in their moral and physical advancement. Tlie Dutch have shown much good policy in the means by which they have done this. They have in most cases upheld and strengthened the authority of the native chiefs, to wnom the people nave been accustomed to render a voluntary obedience ; and by acting on the intelligence and self-interest of these chiefs, have brought about changes in the manners and customs of the people, which would have excited ill-feeling and perhaps revolt nad they been directly enforced by foreigners. In carrying out sucli a system, much depends upon* the character of the people ; and the system which succeeds admir- ably in one place could only be verjr jmrtially worked out in another. In Minahasa the natural docility and intelligence of the race have made their progress rapid ; and how important this is, is well illustrated by the fact, that in the immediate vicinity of the town of Menado are a tribe called Banteks, of a much less tractable disposition, who have hitherto resisted all efforts of the Dutch Government to induce "them to adopt any systematic cultivation. These remain in a ruder condition, but engage themselves willingly as occasional porters and labourers, for which their gi'eater strength and activity well adapt them. No doubt the system here sketched seems open to serious objection. It is to a certain extent despotic, and interferes with free trade, free labour, and free communication. A native cannot leave his \illage without a pass, and cannot engage himself to any merchant or captain without a Government permit. The coffee has all to he sold to Government, at less than half the price that the local merchant would give for it, and he consequently cries out loudly against "monoply" and "oppression." He forgets, however, that the coffee plantations were established by the Government at great outlay of capital and skill ; that it gives free education to the people, and that the monopoly is in lieu of taxation. He forgets that the product he wants to purchase and make a profit by, is the creation of the Government, without whom the people would still be saA'ages. He knows very well that free trade would, as its first result, lead to the importation of whole cargoes of arrack, which would be carried over the country and exchanged for coffee. XVII.] CELEBES. 197 That drunkenness and poverty would spread over the land ; that the public coffee plantations would not be kept up ; that the quality and quantity of the coffee would soon deteriorate ; that traders and merchants would get rich, but that the people would relapse into poverty and barbarism. That such IS invariably the result of free trade with any savage tribes who possess a valuable product, native or cultivated, is well known to those who have visited such people ; but wo might even an- ticipate from general principles that evil results would happen. If there is one thing rather than another to which the grand law of continuity or development will apply, it is to human pro- gress. There are certain stages through which society must pass in its onward march from barbarism to civilization. Now one of these stages has always been some form or other of despotism, such as feudalism or servitude, or a despotic paternal government ; and we have every reason to believe that it is not possible for humanity to leap over this transition epoch, and eass at once from pure savagery to free civilization. Tlie >utch system attempts to supply this missing link, and to bring the people on oy gradual steps to that higher civiliza- tion, which we (the English) try to force upon them at once. Our system has always failed. We demoralize and we extirpate, but we never really civilize. Whether the Dutch svstem can permanently succeed is but doubtful, since it may not be possible to compress the work of ten centuries into one ; but at all events it takes nature as a guide, and is therefore more desei*ving of success, and more likely to succeed, than ours.^ There is one point connected with this question which I think the Missionaries might take up with great physical and moral results. In this beautiful and healthy country, and with abun- dance of food and necessaries, the population does not increase as it ought to do. I can only impute this to one cause. Infant moi-tality, produced by neglect while the mothers are working in the plantations, and by general ignorance of the conditions of health in infants. Women all work, as they have always been accustomed to do. It is no hardship to them, but I believe is often a pleasure and relaxation. They either take their infants with them, in which case they leave them in some shady spot on the ground, going at intervals to give them nourishment, or they leave them at home in the care of other children too young to work. Under neither of these circumstances can infants be j)roperly attended to, and great mortality is the i*esult, keeping down the increase of population far below tlio rate which the general prosperity of the country and tlie universality of marriage would lead us to expect. This is a matter in which the Government is directly interested, since it 1 Dr. Gixill«tD%rd, who visited MinahMa twenty-five yean later, found the country in much the same condition as I describe— drunkenness and crime were almost un- known, and the people were contented and happy. (See The Orui9e 0/ the " Mareheea,' Vol. 11., p. 181.) 198 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. is by the increase of the population alone that there can be any large and permanent increase in the pixxiuce of coffee. The Missionaries should take up the question, because, by inducing married women to confine themselves to domestic duties, they will decidedly promote a higlier civilization, and directW increase the heal til and happiness of the whole community. llie people are so docile, and so willing to adopt the manners and customs of Europeans, that the change mi^ht be easily effected, by merely showing them that it was a question of morality and ci^'llization, and an essential step in their progress towards an equality with their white rulers. After a fortnight's stay at Rurukan, I Wt that pretty and interesting vilhige in search of a locality and climate more pro- ductive of birds and insects. I passed the evening with the Controlleur of Tonddno, and tlie next morning at nine loft in a small boat for the head of the lake, a distance of about ten miles. The lower end of the lake is bordered by swamps and marshes of considerable extent, but a little further on the hills come down to the water's edge and give it very much the appearance of a great river, the width being about two miles. At the upper end is the village of Kdkas, where I dined with the head-man in a good house like those I have already described ; and then went on to L*ing6wan, four miles distant over a level plain. This was the place where I had been recommended to stay, and I accordingly unpacked my baggage and made myself comfortjible in the large house devoted to visitors. I obtained a man to shoot for me, and another to accompany me the next day to the forest, where I was in hopes of finding a good collecting ground. In the morning after breakfast I started off, but found I had four miles to walk over a wearisome straight road through coffee plantations before I could get to the forest, and as soon as I did so it came on to rain heavily, and did not cease till night. This distance to walk every day was too far for any frofitable work, especially when the weather was so uncertain, therefore decided at once that I must go further on, till I found some place close to or in a forest country. In tlie after- noon my friend Mr. Bensneider arrived, together with the Controlleur of the next district, called Belang, from whom I learnt that six miles further on there was a village called Panghu, which had been recently formed and had a good deal of forest close to it ; and he promised me tlie use of a small house if I liked to go there. The next morning I went to see the hot springs and mud volcanoes, for which this place is celebrated. A picturesque path, among plantations and ravines, brought us to a beautiful circular basin about forty feet diameter, bordered by a calcareous ledge, so uniform and truly curved that it looked like a work of art. It was filled with clear water very near the boiling point, and emitting clouds of steam with a strong sulphureous odour. xvii.] CELEBES. 199 It overflows at one point and forms a little stream of hot water, which at a hundrea yards distance is still too hot to hold the hand in. A little f urtlier on, in a piece of rough wood, were two other springs not so regular in outline, but appearing to be much liotter, as they were in a continual state of active ebulli- tion. At intervals of a few minutes a great escape of steam or gas took place, throwing up a column of water three or four feet high. We then went to the mud-springs, which are about a mile off, and are still more curious. On a sloping tract of ground in a sliffht hollow is a small lake of liquid mud, in patches of blue, i-ed, or white, and in many places boiling and bubbling most furiously. All around on the indurated clay are small wells and cniters full of boiling mud. These seem to be forming con- tinually, a small hole appearing first, which emits jets of steam and boiling mud, which on hardening forms a little cone with a crater in the middle. The ground for some distance is very unsafe, as it is evidently liquid at a small depth, and bends with pressure like thin ice. At one of the smaller marginal jets which I managed to approach, I held my hand to see if it was really as hot as it looker, when a little drop of mud that spurted on to my finger scalded like boiling water. A short distance off there was a flat bare surface of rock, as smooth and hot as an oven floor^ which was evidently an old mud-pool dried up and hardened. For hundreds of yards round there were banks of reddish and white clay used for whitewash, and these were so hot close to the surface that the hand could hardly bear to be held in cracks a few inches deep, from which arose a strong sulphureous vapour. I was informed that ?^meyeai's back a French gentleman who visited these springs ventured too near the liquid mud, when the crust gave way and he was engulfed in the honible cauldron. This evidence of intense heat so near the surface over a large tract of country was very impressive, and I could hardly divest myself of the notion that some terrible catastrophe might at any moment devastate the country. Yet it is probable that all these apertures are really safety-valves, and that the inequalities of the resistance of various parts of the earth's crust will always prevent such an accumulation of force as would be required to upheave and overwhelm any extensive area. About seven miles west of this is a volcano which was in eruption about thirty years before my visit, presenting a magnificent appear- ance and covering the surrounding country with showers of ashes. The plains around the lake formed by the intermin^liii{f and decomposition of volcanic products are of amazing fertility, and with a little management m the rotation of crops might be kept in continual cultivation. Rice is now grown on them for three or four years in succession, when they are left fallow for the same period, after which rice or maize can be again grown. Good rice produces thirty-fold, and coflee trees continue bearing 200 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. abundantly for ten or fifteen years, witliout any manure and with scarcely any cultivation. I was delayed a day by incessant rain, and then proceeded to Panghu, which I reached just before the daily rain be^an at 11 A.M. After leaving the summit level of the lake basin, the road is carried along the slope of a fine forest ravine. The descent is a long one, so that I estimated the village to be not more than 1,500 feet above the sea, yet I found tlie morning temperature often 69', the same as at Tondduo at least 600 or 700 leet higher. I was pleased with the appearance of the place, which had a good deal of forest and wild country around it, ana found prepared for me a little house consisting only of a verandah and a back room. This was only intended for visitors to rest in, or to pass a night, but it suited me very well. I was so unfortunate, however, as to lose both my hunters lust at this time. One had been left at TondAno with fever ana diarrhosa^ and the other was attacked at Langowan with inflammation of the chest, and as his case looked rather bad I had him sent back to Menado. The people here were all so busy with their rice- harvest, which it was important for them to finish owing to the early rains, that I could get no one to shoot for me. Dunng the three weeks that I stayed at Panghu, it rained nearly every day, either in the afternoon only, or all day long ; but there were generally a few hours sunshine in the morning, and I took advantage of these to explore the roads and paths, the rocks and ravines, in search or insects. These were not very abundant, yet I saw enough to convince me tliat the locality was a good one, had I been there at the beginning instead of at the end of the dry season. The natives brought me daily a few insects obtained at the Sagueir palms, including some tine Cetonias and stag-beetles. Two little boys were very expert with the blowpipe, and brought me a good many small birds, which they shot with pellets of clay. Among these was a pretty little flower-pecker of a new species (rrionochilus aureolimbatus), and several of the loveliest honeysuckers I had yet seen. My general collection of birds was, however, almost at a standstill ; for though I at length obtained a man to shoot for me, he was not good for much, and seldom brought me more than one bird a day. The best thing he shot was the large and rare fruit-pigeon peculiar to Northern Celebes (Carpophaga forsteni), which I nad long been seeking after. I was myself very successful in one bSa-utif ul group of insects, the tiger-beetles, which seem more abundant and varied here than anywhere else in the Archipelago. I first met with them on a cutting in the road, where a liard clayey bank was partially overgrown with mosses and small ferns. Here I found running about a small olive-green species which never took flight ; and more rarely a fine purplish black wingless insect, which was always found motionless in crevices, and was therefore probably nocturnal. It appeared to me to form a new ^enus. About XVII.] CELEBES. 201 the roads in the forest, I found the lar^e and handsome Cicindela heros^ which I liad before obtained sparingly at Macassar ; but it was in the mountain torrent of the ravine itself that I got my finest things. On dead trunks overhanging the water, and on the banks and foliage, I obtained three very pretty species of Cicindela, Quite distinct in size, foim, and colour, but having an almost identical pattern of pjale spots. I also found a single specimen of a most curious species with very long antennae, hut my finest discovery here was the Cicindela gloriosa, which I found on mossy stones just rising aboy© the water. After obtaining my first specimen of this elegant insect, 1 used to walk up the stream, watching carefully every moss- covered rock ancl stone. It was rather shy, and would often lead me a long cliase from stone to stone, becoming invisible every time it settled on the damp moss, owing to its rich velvety green colour. On some days I could only catch a few glimpses of it, on others I got a single specimen, and on a few occasions two, but never without a more or less active pursuit. This and several other species I never saw but in this one ravine. Among the people here I saw specimens of several types, which, with the peculiarities of the languages, gives me some notion of their probable origin. A striking illustration of the low state of civilization of these people till quite recently, is to lie found in the great diversity of their languages. Villages three or four miles apart have separate dialects, and each group of three or four such villages nas a distinct language quite unintelligible to all the rest ; so that, till the recent introduction of Malay by the Missionaries, there must have been a bar to all free communication. These languages offer many peculiarities. They contain a Celebes-Malay element and a Papuan element, along with some radical peculiarities found also in the languages of the Siau and Sanguir islands further north, and therefore probably derived from the Philippine Islands. Physical characters correspond. There are some of the less civilized tribes which have semi-Papuan features and hair, while in some villages the true Celebes or Bugis physiognomy prevails. The plateau of Tonddno is chiefly inhabited by people nearly as white as the Chinese, and with very pleasing semi-European features. The people of Siau and Sanguir much resemble these, and I believe them to be perhaps immigrants from some of the islands of North Polynesia. The Papuan type will represent the remnant of the aborigines, while those of the Bugis character show the extension northward of the superior Malay races. • As I was wasting valuable time at Panghu owing to the bad weather and the illness of my hunters, I returned to Menado after a stay of three weeks. Here I had a little touch of fever, and what with drying and packing away my collections and gettip^ fresh sevvants, it was a fortnight before I was again 202 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. ready to start. I now went eastward over an undulating country skirting tlie great volcano of KUbat, to a village called Lempias, situated close to the extensive forest that covers the lower slopes of that mountain. My baggage was carried from village to village by relays of men, and as each change involved some delajr. I did not reach my destination (a distance of eighteen miles) till sunset. I was wet through, and had to wait for an hour in an uncomfortable state till the first in.stalment of my baggage arrived, which luckily contained my clothes, while the rest did not come in till midnight. This being the district inhabited by that singular animal the Babiru»i (Hog-deer) I inquired about skulls, and soon obtained several in tolerable condition, as well as a fine one of the rare and curious " Sapi-utan " (Anoa depressicomis). Of tiiis animal I had seen two li\ing specimens at Menado, and was surprised at their great reseniolance to snjall cattle, or still more to the Eland of South Africa. Their Malay name signifies ** forest ox," and they differ from very small high-bred oxen principally bv the low-hanging dewlap, and straight pointed horns which slope back over the neck. I did not find the forest here so rich in insects as I had expected, and my hunters got me very few birds, but what they did obtain were very interesting. Among these were the rare forest Kingfisher (Crittura cyanotis), a small new species of Megapodius, and one specimen of the large and in- teresting Maleo (Megacephalon ruoripes), to obtain which was one of my chief reasons for visiting this district. Getting no more, however, after ten days' searcli I removed to Licoupang, at the extremity of the peninsula, a place celebratut twenty dogs. On the way they caught a young Sapi-utan and five wild pigs. Of the former I preserved the head. This animal is entirely confined to the remote mountain forests of Celebes and one or two adiacent islands which form part of the same group. In the adults the head is XVII.] CELEBES. 203 black, with a white mark over each eye, one on each cheek, and another on tlie throat. The lioms are very smooth and sharp when young, but become thicker and ridged at the bottom with a^e. Most naturalists consider this cuiious animal to be a small ox, but from the character of the horns, the fine coat of hair and the descending dewlap, it seemed closely to approach the antelopes. Arrived at our destination we built a hut and prepared for a stay of some days, I to shoot and skin " Maleos," Mr. Goldmann ana the Major to hunt wild pigs, Babirusa, and Sapi-utan. The place is situated in tlie large bay between the islands of Limb6 and Banca, and consists of a steep beach moi*e than a mile in length, of deep loose and coarse black volcanic sand or rather gravel, very fatiguing to walk over. It is bounded at each ex- tremity by a small river, with hilly ground beyond ; while the forest Dehind the beach itself is tolerably level and its growth stunted. We have here probably an ancient lava stream from the Klabat volcano, which has flowed down a valley into the sea, and the decomposition of which has formed the loose black sand. In confirmation of this view it may be mentioned, that the beaches beyond the small rivers in both directions are of white sand. It is in this loose, hot black sand that those singular birds the "Maleos" deposit their eggs. In the months of August and September, wnen there is little or no rain, they come down in pairs from the interior to this or to one or two other favourite spots, and scratch holes three or four feet deep, iust above hi^h- watermark, where the female deposits a single large egg, which she covers over with about a foot of sand, and then returns to the forest. At the end of ten or twelve days she comes again to the same spot to lay another e^g, and each female bird is supposed to lay six or eignt eggs dunng the season. The male assists the female in making the hole, coming down and returning with her. The appearance of the bird when walking on the beach is very handsome. The glossy black and rosy white of the plumage, the helmeted he«'id and elevated tail, like that of the common fowl, give a striking character, which their stately and some- what sedate walk renders still more remarkable. There is hardly any difference between the sexes, except that the casque or bonnet at the back of the head and the tubercles at the nostrils are a little larger, and the beautiful rosy salmon colour a little deeper in the male bird, but the difference is so slight that it is not always possible to t-ell a male from a female with- out dissection. They run quickly, but when shot at or suddenly disturbed take wing with a heavy noisy flight to some neigh- bouring tree, where they settle on a low branch ; and they probably roost at night in a similar situation. Many birds lay m the same hole, for a dozen eggs are often found together ; and these are so large that it is not possible for the body of the bird to contain more than one fully-developed egg at the same time. 204 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. In all the female birds which I shot, none of the eggs besides the one large one exceeded the size oi peas, and there were only eight or nine of these, which is probably the extreme number a bird can lay in one season. Every year the natives come for fifty miles round to obtain these eggs, which are esteemed a great cfelicacy, and when quite fresh are indeed delicious. They are richer than hens' eggs and of a finer flavour, and each one completely fills an ordinary tea- cup, and forms with bread or rice a very good meal. The colour of the shell is a pale brick red, or very rarely pure white. They are elongate ana very slightly smaller at one end, from four to four and a half inches long by two and a quarter or two and a half wide. After the eggs are deposited in the sand they are no further cared for by the mother. The young birds on breaking the shell, work their way up through the sand and run off at once to the forest ; and I was assured by Mr. Duivenboden of Ternate, that they can fly the \ery day they are hatched. He had taken some eggs on board his schooner which hatched during the night, and in the morning the little birds flew readily across the cabin. Considering the great distances the birds come to deposit the eggs in a proper situation (often ten or fifteen miles) it seems extraordinary that they should take no further care of them. It is, however, quit« certain that they neither do nor can watch them. The eggs being deposited by a number of hens in succession in the same hole, would render it impossible for each to distinguish its own ; and the food necessary lor such large birds (consisting entirely of fallen fruits) can only be obtained by roaming over an extensive district, so that if the numbers oi birds which come down to this single beach in the breeding season, amounting to many hundreds, were obliged to remain in the vicinity, many would perish of hunger. In the structure of the feet of this bird, we may detect a cause for its departing from the habits of its nearest allies, the Megapodii and Talegalli, which heap up earth, leaves, stones, and sticks into a huge mound, in which they bury their eggs. The feet of the Maleo are not nejirly so large or strong in pro- portion as in these birds, while its claws are short ana straight instead of being long and much curved. The toes are, however, strongly webbed at the base, forming a broad powerful foot, which, with the rather long leg, is welladapted to scratch away the loose sand (which flies up in a perfect shower when the birds are at work), but which could not without much labour accumu- late the heaps of miscellaneous rubbish, which the large grasping feet of the Megapodius bring together with ease. We may also, I think, see in the peculiar organization of the entire family of the Megapodidse or Brush Turkeys, a reason why they depart so widely from the usual habits of the Class of birds. Each egg being so large as entirely to fill up the ab- dominal cavity and with difficulty pass the walls of tiie pelvis, XVII.] CELEBES. 205 a considerable interval is required before the successive eggs can be matured (the natives say about thirteen days). £ach bird lays six or eight eggs, or even more each season, so that between the first and last there may be an interval of two or three months. Now, if these eggs were hatched in the ordinary way, either the parents must Keep sitting continually for this long period, or it they only began to sit after the last em was deposited, the first would be exposed to injury by the climate, or to destruction bv the large lizards, snakes, or other animals which al)ound in the distnct ; because such large birds must roam about a good deal in search of food. Here then we seem to have a case in which the habits of a bird may be directly traced to its exceptional organization ; for it will hardly h!e maintained that this abnormal structure and peculiar food were given to the Megapodidae in order that they might not exhibit that parental affection, or possess those domestic instincts so general in the Class of birds, and which so much excite our admiration. It has generally been the custom of writers on Natural History to take the habits and instincts of animals as fixed points, and to consider their structure and organization as specially adapted to be in accordance with these. This assumption is however an arbitrary one, and has the bad effect of stifling inquiry into the nature and causes of '^ instincts and habits," treating them as directly due to a "first cause," and therefore incomprehensible to us. I believe that a careful consideration of the structure of a species, and of the peculiar physical and organic conditions bv which it is surrounded, or has been surrounded in past ages, will often, as in this case, throw much light on the origin of its habits and instincts. These again, combined with changes in external conditions, react upon structure, and by means of "variation" and " natural selection " both are kept in hannony. My friends remained three days, and got plenty of wild pigs and two Anoas, but the latter were much injured by the dogs, and I could only pi^eserve the heads. A grand hunt which we attempted on the third day failed, owing to bad management in driving in the game, and we waited for five hours perched on platforms in trees without getting a shot, although we had been assured that pigs, Babiriisas, and Anoas would rush past us in dozens. I myself, with two men, stayed three days longer to get more specimens of the Maleos, and succeeded in preserving twenty-six very fine ones, the flesh and eggs of which supplied us witn abundance of good food. The Major sent a boat, as he had promised, to take home my baggage, while I walked through the forest with my two boys and a guide, about fourteen miles. For the first half of the distance there was no path, and we had often to cut our way through tangled rattans or thickets of bamboo. In some of our turnings to find the most practicable route I expressed my fear that we were losing our way, as the sun being vertical I could 206 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. see no possible clue to the right direction. My conductors, however, laughed at the idea, which they seemed to consider quite ludicrous ; and sure enough, about half way, we suddenly encountered a little hut where people from Licoupang came to hunt and smoke wild pigs. My guide told me he had never before traversed the forest between these two points ; and this is what is considered by some travellers as one of the savage "instincts," whereas it is merely the result of wide general knowledge. The man knew tlie topography of the whole dis- trict: the slope of the land, the direction of the streams, the belts of bamboo or rattan, and many other indications of locality and direction ; and he was thus enabled to hit straight upon tlie hut. in the vicinity of which he had often hunted. In a forest oi which he knew nothing, he would be quite as much at a loss as a European. Thus it is, I am convinced, with all the wonderful accounts of Indians finding their way through track- less forests to definite points. They may never have passed straight between the two particular points before, but they are well acquainted with the vicinity of both, and have such a general knowledge of the whole country, its water system, its soil and its vegetation, that as they approach the point they are to reach, many easily-recognized indications enable them to hit upon it with certainty. The chief feature of this forest was the abundance of rattan palms, hanging from the trees, and turning and twisting about on the ground, often in inextricable confusion. One wonders at first how they can get into such queer shapes ; but it is evidently caused by the decay and fall of the trees up which they have first climbed, after which they grow alone the ground till they meet with another trunk up which to ascena. A tangled mass of twisted living rattan is therefore a sign that at some former period a large tree has fallen there, though there may be not the slightest vestige of it left. The rattan seems to have unlimited powers of growth, and a single plant may mount up several trees in succession, and thus reach the enormous length they are said sometimes to attain. They much improve the appearance of a forest as seen from the coast ; for they vary the otherwise monotonous tree-tops with feathery crowns of leaves rising clear above them, and each terminated by an erect leafy spike like a lightning-conductor. The otlier most interesting object in the forest was a beautiful palm, whose perfectly smooth and cylindrical stem rises erect to more than a hundred feet high, with a thickness of only eight or ten inches ; while the fan-shaped leaves which compose its crown are almost complete circles of six or eight feet diameter, borne aloft on long and slender petioles, and beautifully toothed round the edge by tlie extremities of the leaflets, which are separated only for a few inches from the circumference. It is probably the Livistona rotundifolia of botanists, and is the most complete and beautiful fan-leaf I have ever seen, serving ad- xviii.] NATURAL HISTORY OF CELEBES. 207 inirably for folding into water-buckets and impromptu baskets, OS well as for thatcinng and other purposes. A few days afterwards I returned to Menado on horseback, Rending my baggage round by sea ; and had just time to pack ap all my collections to go by the next mail steamer to Amboyna. I will now devote a few pages to an account of the chief pecu- liarities of the Zoology of Celebes, and its relation to that of the surrounding countries. CHAPTER XVIIL NATURAL HISTOBY OF CBLBBES. The position of Celebes is the most central in the Archipelago. Immediately to the north are the Philippine islands ; on tne west is Borneo; on the east are the Molucca islands; and on the south is the Timor group : and it is on all sides so connected with these islands by its own satellites, by small islets, and by coral reefs, that neither by inspection on the map nor by actual observation around its coast, is it possible to deteimine accurately which should be grouped with it, and which with the surround - *ing districts. Such being the case, we should naturally expect to find, that the productions of this central island in some degree represented the richness and variety of the whole Archipelago, while we should not expect much individuality in a country, so situated, that it would seem as if it were pre-eminently fitted to receive stragglers and immigrants from all around. As so often happens in nature, however, the fact turns out to be just the reverse of what we should have expected ; and an examination of its animal productions shows Celebes to be ivt once the poorest in the number of its species, and the most isolated in the character of its productions, of all the great islands in the Archipelago. With its attendant islets it spreads over an extent of seA hardly inferior in length and breadth to that occupied by Borneo, while its actual land area is nearly double that of Java ; yet its Mammalia are less than half and its land birds about two-thirds the numbers found in the last- named island. Its position is such that it could receive immi- grants from every side more readily than Java, yet in proportion to the species which inhabit it far fewer seem derived trom other islands, while far more are altogether peculiar to it ; and a con- siderable number of its animal forms are so remarkable, as to find no close allies in any other pai*t of the world. I now propose to examine the best known groups of Celebesian animals in some detail, to study their relations to those of other islands, and to call attention to the many points of interest which they suggest. We know far more of the birds of Celebes than we do of any other group of animals. No less than 205 species have beendis- 208 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. covered, and though no doubt many more wading and swimming birds have to be added, yet the list of land birds, 144 in number, and which for our present purpose are much the most important, must be very nearly complete. I myself assiduously collected birds in Celebes for nearly ten months, and mv assistant, Mr. Allen, spent two months in the Sula islanas. The Dutch naturalist Forsten spent two vears in Northern Celebes (twenty yeArs before my visit), and collections of birds had also been sent to Holland from Macassar. The French ship of discovery, L* Astrolabe, also touched at Menado and procured collections. Since my return home, the Dutch naturalists Rosenberg and Bernstein have made extensive collections both in North Celebes and in the Sula islands ; yet all their researches combined have only added eight species of land birds to those forming part of my own collection — a fact which renders it almost certain that there are verv few more to discover.^ Besides Safayer and Boutong on the south, with Peling and Bung[ay on the east, the three islands of the Sula (or Zula) Archipelago also belong zoologically to Celebes, although their position is such, that it would seem more natural to group them with the Moluccas. About 48 land birds are now known from the Sula group, and if we reject from these five species which have a wide range over the Archipelago, the remainder are much more ciiaracteristic of Celebes tlian of the Moluccas.' Thirty-one species are identical with those of the former island, and four are representatives of Celebes forms, while only eleven are Moluccan species, and two more representatives. But although the Sula islands belong to Celebes, they are so close to Bouru and the southern islands of the Gilolo grroup, that several purely Moluccan forms have migrated there, whicli are quite untnown to the island of Celebes itself ; the whole thirteen Moluccan species being in this category, thus adding to the productions of Celel^es a foreign element which does not really belong to it. In studying tlie peculiarities of the Celebe- sian fauna, it will therefore be well to consider only the produc- tions of tlie main island. The number of land birds in the island of Celebes is 128, and from these we may, as before, strike out a small number of species which roam over the whole Archipelago (often from India to the Pacific), and which therefore only serve to disguise the peculiarities of individual islands. These are 20 in numl^r, and leave 108 species which we may consider as more especially characteristic of the island. On accurately comparing these with the birds of all the surrounding countries, we find tliat only nine extend into the islands westward, and nineteen into the islands e-astward, while no less tlian 80 are entirely confined to the Celebesian fauna — a degree of individuality which, considering 1 Dr B. Meyer and other naturalists have since explored the island and its sur- rounding islets, and have raised the toUil number of ite birds to nearly 40U, of which 288 are laud birds. xviiL] NATURAL HISTORY OF CELEBES. 209 the situation of the island, is hardly to be equalled in any other part of the world. If we still more closely examine these 80 species, wo shall be struck by the manjr peculiarities of structure they present, and by the curious affinities with distant parts of the world which many of them seem to indicate. These points are of so much interest and importance that it will be necessary to pass in review all those species which are peculiar to the island, and to call attention to whatever is most worthy of remark. Six species of tlie Hawk tribe are peculiar to Celebes ; three of these are very distinct from allied birds which range over all India to Java and Borneo, and which tlius seem to be suddenly changed on entering Celebes. Another (Accipiter trinotatus), is a beautiful hawk, witli elegant rows of large round white spots on the tail, rendering it very conspicuous and quite different from any other known bird of the family. Three owls are also peculiar ; and one, a barn owl (Strix rosenber^i), is very much larger and stronger than its ally Strix javanica, which ranges from India through all the islands as far as Lombock. Of the ten Parrots found in Celebes, eight are peculiar. Among them are two species of the singular raquet-tailed parrots form- ing the genus Prioni turns, and whicli are characterized by possessing two long spoon-shaped feathers in the tail. Two allied species are founa in the adjacent island of Mindanao, one of the Philippines, and this form of tail is found in no other parrots in the whole world. A small species of Lorikeet (Triclio^lossus flavoviridis) seems to have its nearest ally in Australia. The three Woodpeckers which inhabit the island are all peculiar, and are allied to species found in Java and Borneo, althougli very different from them all. Among the three peculiar Cuckoos two are verv remarkable. Phcenicophaus callirhynchus is the largest ancl handsomest species of its genus, and is distinguished by the three colours of its beak, bright yellow, red, and black. Eudynamis melan- orynchus differs from all its allies in having a jet-black bill, whereas the other species of the genus always have it green, yellow, or reddish. The Celebes Boiler (Coi*acias temmincki) is an interesting example of one species of a genus being cut off from the rest. There are species of Coracias in Europe, Asia, and Africa, but none in the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Java, or Borneo. The present species seems therefore quite out of place ; and what is still more curious is the fact, that it is not at all like any of the Asiatic species, but seems more to resemble those of Africa. In the next family, the Bee-eaters, is another equally isolated bird, Meropogon forsteni, which combines the characters of African and Indian Bee-eaters, and whose only near ally, Meropogon breweri, was discovered by M, Du Chaillu in West Africa ! 210 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. The two Celebes Hornbills have no close allies in those which abound in the surrounding countries. The only Thrush, CJeocichla ervthronota, is most nearly allied to a species peculiar to Timor. Two of the Flycatchers are closely allied to Indian species which are not found in the Malay islands. Two genera somewhat allied to the Magpies (Streptocitta and Charitomis), but whose affinities are so doubtful that Professor Schlegel places them among the Starlings, are entirely confined to Celebes. Tliey are beautiful long-tailed birds, with black and white plumage, and with the feathers of the head somewhat ngid and scale-liice. Doubtfully allied to the Starlings are two otner very isolated and beautiful birds. One, Enodes erythrophrys, has ashy and yellow plumage, but is ornamented with broad stripes of orange- red above the eyes. The other, Basilomis celebensis, is a blue- black bird with a white patch on each side of the breast, and the head ornamented witn a beautiful compressed scaly crest of feathers, resembling in form that of the well-known Cock-of- the-rock of South America. The only ally to this bird is found in Ceram, and has the feathers of the crest elongated upwards into quite a different form. A still more curious bird is the Scissirostrum pa^ei, which although it is at present classed in the Starling family, differs from ail other species in the form of the bill and nostrils, and seems most nearly allied in its general structure to the Ox- peckers (Buphaga) of tropical Africa, next to which the celebrated ornithologist Prince Bonaparte finally placed it. It is almost entirely of a slaty colour, with yellow bill and feet, but the feathers of the rump and upper tail-coverts each termi- nate in a rigid glossy pencil or tuft of a vivid crimson. These pretty little birds take the place .of the metallic-green starlings of the genus Calomis, which are found in most otlier islands of the Archipelago, but which are absent from Celebes.* They go in nocks, feeding upon grain and fruits, often fre- quenting dead trees, in holes of which they build their nests ; and they cling to the trunks as easily as woodpeckers or creepers. Out of eighteen Pigeons found in Celebes eleven are peculiar to it. Two of them, Ptilonopus g^laris and Turacfena mena- densis, have their neai*est allies in Timor. Two others, Carpo- phaga forsteni and Phlsegenas tristigmata, most resemble Philippine island species : and Carpophaga radiatA belongs to a New Guinea group. Lastly, in the Gallinaceous tribe, the curious helmeted Maleo (Megacephalon rubripes) is quite isolated, having its nearest (but still distant) allies in the Brush- turkeys of Australia and New Guinea. Judging, therefore, by the opinions of the eminent naturalists who have described ana classified its birds, we find that many of the species have no near allies whatever in the countries 1 CalomiB negUeta^ flnt found ia the SoU Islands, bu now been disoovered in Celebes by Dr. Meyen. XVIII.] NATURAL HISTORY OF CELEBES. 211 which surround Celebes, but are either quite isolated, or indicate relations with such distant regions as New Guinea, Australia, India, or Africa. Other cases of similar remote affinities between the productions of distant countries no doubt exist, but in no spot upon the globe that I am yet acquainted with do so many of them occur together, or do they form so decided a feature in the natural history of the country. The Mammalia of Celebes are very few in number, consisting of fourteen terrestrial species and seven bats. Of the former no less than eleven are peculiar, including two which there is reason to believe may nave been recently carried into other islands by man. Three species which have a tolerably wide range in the Archipelago, are — 1, The curious Lemur, Tarsi us spectrum, which is found in all the islands westward as far as Malacca, and also in the Philippine Islands ; 2, TJie common Malay Civet, Yiverra tangalunga, which has a still wider range ; and 3, a Deer, which seems to be the same as the Kusa hippelaphus of Java, and was probably introduced by man at an early period. The more characteristic species arc as follows : — Cynopithecus nigrescens, a curious baboon-like monkey, if not a true baboon, which abounds all over Celelies, and is found nowhere else but in the one small island of Batchian, into which it has probably been introduced accidentally. An allied species is found in the Philippines, but in no other island of tlie Archipelago is there anything resembling them. These creatures are about the size of a spaniel, of a jet-black colour, and have the projecting dog-like muzzle and overhanging brows of the baboons. They have large red callosities and a short fleshy tail, scarcely an inch long, and hardly visible. They go in large bands, living chiefly in the trees, but often descending on the ground and robbing gardens and orchards. Anoa depressicornis, the Sapi-utan, or wild cow of the Malays, is an animal which has been the cause of much controversy, as to whether it should l^e classed as ox, buffalo^ or antelqpe. It is smaller than any other wild cattle, and m manv respects seems to approach some of the ox-like antelopes of Africa. It is found only in the mountains, and is said never to inhabit places where there are deer. It is somewhat smaller than a small Highland cow, and lias long straight horns, which are ringed at the base and slope backwards over the neck. The wild pig seems to be of a species peculiar to the island ; but a much more curious animal of this family is the Babirusa or Pig-deer, so named by the Malays from its long and slender legs, and curved tusks resembling horns. This extraordinary creature resembles a i)ig in general appearance, but it does not dig with its snout, as it feeds on fallen fruits. The tusks of the lower jaw are very long and sharp, but the upper ones instead of growing downwards in the usual way are completely reversed, growing upwards out of bony sockets ti trough the skin on each 212 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chat. side of tlie Bnout, curving bn«kwards to near the eyes, and in old aniniuls often rencliing eight or ten inches in length. It is difficult to understand wlmt can be the use of these extra- ordinary honi-like t«ieth. Some of the old writers supposed that they served ns hooks, by which the creature could rest its head on a branch. But the way in which they usually diverge just over and in fi-ont of the eye lias suggested tlie more prob- able idea, that they serve to guard these organs from thorns and spines while hunting for fallen fruits among the tangled thicketaof rattans and other spiny plants. Even this, however, is not satisfactory, for the female, who must seek her food in the same way, does not possess them. I should 1^ inclined to believe rather, that the,se tusks were onee useful, and were then worn down as fast as they grew ; but that changed conditions of life have rendered them unnecessary, and they now develop into a monstious form, just as the incisors of the Beaver or Rabbit will go on growing, if t!ie opposite teeth do not wear them away. In old animals they reach an enormous size, and are generally broken off as if by fighting. xviil] natural history OF CELEBES. 213 Here again we have a resemblance to the Wart-hogs of Africa, whose upper canines grow outwards and curve up so as to form a transition from the usual mode of growth to that of the Babirusa. In other res}>ects there seems no affinity between these animals, and the Babirusa stands completely isolated, having no resemblance to the pigs of any otlier part of the world. It is found all over Celebes and in the Sula islands, and also in Bouru, the only spot beyond the Celebes group to which it extends ; and which island also shows some affinity to the Sula islands in its birds, indicating perhaps a closer connexion lietween them at some former perioa than now exists. The other terrestrial mammals of Celeljes are, five species of squirrels, which are all distinct from those of Java and Borneo, and mark the furthest eastward range of the genus in the tropics ; and two of Eastern opossums (Cuscus), which are different from those of the Moluccas, and mark the furthest westward ex- tension of this genus and of the Marsupial order. Thus we see that the Mammalia of Celebes are no less individual and remark- able than the birds, since three of the largest and most interest- ing species have no near allies in surrounding countries, but seem vaguely to indicate a relation to the African continent. Many groups of insects appear to be especially subiect to local influences, their forms and colours changing with each change of conditions, or even with a change of locality where the conditions seem almost identical. We should tlierefore anticipate that the individuality manifested in the higher animals would be still more prominent in these creatures with less stable organisms. On the other hand, however, we have to consider that the dispersion and migration of insects is much more easily effected than that of mammals or even of birds. They are much more likely to be carried away by violent winds ; their eg^ may be carried on leaves either by i^rms of wind or by floating trees, and their larvae and pupae often buried in trunks of trees or enclosed in waterproof cocoons, may be floated for days or weeks uninjured over the ocean. These facilities of distribution tend to assimilate the productions of adjacent lands in two ways : first, by direct mutual interchange of species : and secondly, by repeated immigrations of fresh individuals or a species common to other islands, which by intercrossing tend to obliterate the changes of form and colour, which differences of conditions mieht otherwise produce. Bearing these facts in mind, we shall find that the individuality ot the insects of Celebes is even gpreater than we have any reason to expect. For the purpose of insuring accuracy in comparisons with other islands, I shall confine myself to those graups which are b^t known, or which I have myself carefully stumed. Begin- ning with the Papilionidse or Swallow-tailed butterflies, Celebes possesses 24 species, of which the large number of 18 are not found in any other island. If we compare this with Borneo, which out of 29 species has only two not found elsewhere, the 214 THE MALAY ARCHIPEUlGO. [chap. difference is as striking as anything can be. In the family of the Pieridse, or white butterflies, the difference is not quite so great, owing perhaps to the more wandering habits of the group ; but it is still very remarkable. Out of 30 species inhabiting Celebes, 19 are peculiar, while Java (from which more species are known than from Sumatra or Borneo), out of 37 species has only 13 x)eculiar. The Danaid» are large, but weak-flying butterflies, which frequent forests and gardens, and are plainly but often very richlv coloured. Of tliese my own collection contains 16 species irom Celebes and 15 from Borneo ; but whereas no less than 14 are confined to the former island, only two are peculiar to the latter. The Nymphalidse are a very extensive group, of generally strong-winged and very bright- coloured butterflies, very abundant in the tropics, and repre- sented in our own country by our Fritillaries, our Vanessas. and our Purple-emperor. Some months a^o I drew up a list ox the Eastern species of this group, including all the new ones discovered by myself, and arrived at the following comparative results : — Species of Nyniphalid«. Species peculiar to Percent^ D^^^iwi wi 1. jruii^ii^tiuK. g^^jj island. of peculiar Species. Java 70 23 83 Borneo . '. . . 52 15 . . • .... 29 Celebe^j .... 48 35 73 The Coleoptera are so extensive that few of the groups have yet been carefully worked out. I will therefore refer to one only, which I have myself recently studied— the Cetoniadas or Rose-chafers, — a group of beetles which, owing to their exti*eme beauty, have been much sought after. From Java 37 species of these insects are known, ana from Celebes only 30 ; yet only 13, or 35 per cent, are peculiar to the former island, and 19, or 63 per cent., to the latter. ^ The result of these comparisons is, that although Ceiel)es is a single large island with only a few smaller ones closely grouped around it, we must really consider it as forming one of the great divisions of the Archipelago, equal in rank and importance to the whole of the Moluccan or Philippine groups, to the Papuan islands, or to the Indo-Malay islands («Java, Sumatra. Borneo, and the Malay j)eninsula). Taking those families ot insects and birds which are best known, the following table shows the comparison of Celebes with the otlier groups of islands : — PAPILIONIDJB AMD HAWKS, PARROTS, AND PIKRIDiB. PIOBuNS. Per cent of peculiar Per cent of peculiar Species. Species. Indo-Malay region 66 64 Philippine group 66 73 Celebes 69 60 Moluccan group 52 . . . .' 62 Timor group 42 47 Papuan group 64 47 XVIII.] NATURAL HISTORY OF CELEBES. 216 These large and well-known families well represent the general character of the zoology of Celebes : and they show that this island is really one of the most isolated portions of the Archipelago, altliough situated in its very centre. But the insects of Celebes present us with other phenomena more curious and more difficult to explain than their specific individuality. The butterflies of that island are in many cases characterized by a peculiarity of outline, which distinguishes them at a glance from those of any other part of the world. It is most strongly manifested in the Papilios and the Pieridfle, and consists in the fore- wings being either strongly curved or abruptly bent near the base, or in the extremity being elongated and often somewhat hookea. Out of the 14 species of Papilio in Celebes, 13 exhibit this peculiarity in a greater or less degree, when compared with the most nearly allied species of the surrounding islands. Ten species of Pieridse have the same character, and in four or five of the Nymphalidse it is also very distinctly marked. In almost every case the species found in Celebes are much larger than those of the islands westward, and at least equal to those of the Moluccas, or even larger. The difference of form is however the most remarkable feature, as it is altogether a new thing for a whole set of species in one country to aiffer in exactly the same way from the corresponding sets in all the surrounding countries ; and it is so well marked, that without looking at the details of colouring, most Celebes Papilios and many rieridse can be at once distinguished from those of other islands by their form alone. ^ The outside figure of each pair here given shows the exact size and form of the fore-wing in a butterfly of Celebes, while the inner one represents the most closely allied species from one of the adjacent islands. Figure 1 shows the strongly curved margin of the Celebes species, Papilio gigon, compared with the much straighter margin of rapilio demolion from Singapore and Java. Figure 2 shows the abrupt bend over the oase of the wing in rapilio miletus of Celebes compared with the slight curvature in the common Papilio sarpedon, which has almost exactly the same fonu from India to New Guinea and Australia. }* igure 3 shows the elongated wing of Tachyris zarinda. a native of Celebes, compared with the much shorter wing of Tachyris nero, a very closely allied species found in all the western islands. The difference of form is in each case sufficiently obvious, but when the insects themselves are com- pared it is much more striking than in these partial outlines. From the analogy of birds, we should suppose that the pointed wing gave increased rapidity of flighty since it is a character of terns, swallows, falcons, and of the swift-flying pigeons. A short and rounded wing, on the other hand, always accompanies a more feeble or more laborious flight, and one much less under command. We might suppose, therefore, that the butterflies which possess this peculiar form were better able to escape 216 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. pursuit. But there seems no unusual abundance of insectiv- orous birds to render this necessary ; and as we cannot believe that such a curious peculiarity is without meaning, it seems probable that it is the result of a former condition of things, when the island possessed a much richer fauna, the relics of which we see in tne isolated birds and Mammalia now inhabiting it ; and when the abundance of insectivorous creatures rendered some unusual means of escape a necessity for the large-winged and showy butterflies. It is some confirmation of this view, that neither the very small nor the very obscurely coloured groups of buttei*flies have elongated wings, nor is any modifica- tion perceptible in those strong- winged groups wliich already possess great strength and rapidity of fliglit. These were already sufficiently protected from their enemies, and did not require increased power of escaping from them. It is not at xvni.] NATURAL HISTORY OP CELEBES. 217 all clear what effect the peculiar curvature of the wings has in modifying flight. Another curious feature in the zoology of Celebes is also worthy of attention. I allude to the absence of several g^ups which are found on both sides of it, in the Indo-Malay islands as well as in the Moluccas ; and which thus seem to be unable, from some unknown cause, to obtain a footing in the intervening island. In Birds we have the two families of Podargidse ana Laniadfe, which range over the whole Archipelago and into Australia, and which yet have no representative in Celebes. The genera Ceyx among Kingiishers, Ciiniger among Thrushes, Rhipidura among Flycatcliers, and Erythrura among Finches, are all found in tlie Moluccas as well as in Borneo and Java, — but not a single species belonging to any one of them is found in Celebes. Amonff insects, the large genus of Hose-chafers, Lomaptei*a, is found in every countrv and island between India and N(BW Guinea, except Celebes. This unexpected absence of many groups, from one limited district in the very centre of their area of distribution, is a phenomenon not altogether unique, but, I believe, nowhere so well marked as in this case ; and it certainly adds considerably to the strange character of this remarkable island. The anomalies and eccentricities in the natural history of Celebes which I have endeavoured to sketch in this chapter, all point to an origin in a remote antiquity. The history of extinct animals teaches us that their distribution in time and in space are strikingly similar. The rule is, that just as the productions of adjacent areas usually resemble each other closely, so do the productions of successive periods in the same area : and as the productions of remote areas generally differ widely, so do the productions of the same area at remote epochs. We are therefore led irresistibly to the conclusion, that cnange of species, still more of generic and of family fonn, is a matter of time. But time may have led to a change of species in one country, while in another the forms have been more permanent, or the change may have gone on at an equal rate but in a different manner in both. In either case the amount of individ- uality in the pix>ductions of a district, will be to some extent a measure of the time that district has been isolated from those that surround it. Judged by this standard, Celebes must be one of the oldest parts of the Archipelago. It probably dates from a period not only anterior te that when Borneo, Java, and Sumatra were separated from the continent, but from that still more remote epoch when the land that now constitutes these islands had not risen above the ocean. Such an antiquity is necessary to account for the number of animal forms it Possesses, which show no relation te those of India or Australia, ut rather with those of Africa ; and we are led to speculate on the possibility of there having once existed a continent in the Incuan Ocean which might serve as a bridge to connect 218 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. these distant countries. Now it is a curious fact, that the existence of such a land has been already thought necessary to account for the distribution of the curious Quadrumana forming the family of the Lemurs. These have their metropolis in Madagascar, but are found also in Africa, in Ceylon, in the peninsula of India,' and in the Malay Archipelago as far as Celebes, which is its furthest eastern limit. Dr. Sclatcr has proposed for the hypothetical continent connecting these distant points, and whose former existence is indicated by the Mascarene islands and the Maldive coral group, the name of Lemuria. Whether or no we believe in its existence in the exact form here indicated, the student of geographical distribu- tion must see in the extraordinary and isolated productions of Celebes proofs of the former existence of some continent from whence the ancestors of these creatures, and of many other intermediate forms, could have been derived.^ In this short sketch of the most striking peculiarities of the Natural History of Celebes, I have been obliged to enter mucli into details that I fear will have been uninteresting to the general reader, but unless I had done so my exposition would nave lost much of its force and value. It is bv these details alone that I have been able to prove the unusual features that Celebes presents to us. Situated in the very midst of an Archipelago, and closely hemmed in on every side by islands teeming with varied forms of life, its productions have yet .1 surprising amount of individuality. While it is poor in the actual number of its species, it is yet wonderfully rich in peculiar forms, many of which are singular or beautiful, and are in some cases absolutely unique upon the globe. We behold here the curious i)henomenon of groups of insects changing their outline in a similar manner when compared with those of surrounding islands, suggesting some common cause which never seems to have acted elsewhere in exactly the same way. Celebes, therefore, presents us with a most striking example of the interest that attaches to the study of the geographical distribution of animals. We can see that their present distri- bution upon the globe is the result of all the moi*e recent changes tne earth's surface has undergone ; and by a careful study of the phenomena we are sometimes able to deduce approximately what those past changes must have been, in order to produce the distribution we find to exist. In the comparatively simple case of the Timor group, we were able to deduce these changes with some approach to certainty. lu the much more complicated case of Celebes we can only indicate their general nature, since we now see the result, not of any single or recent change only, but of a whole series of the later revolutions which have resulted in the present distribution of land in the Eastern Hemisphere. 1 I have since come to the conclusion that no such connecting land as Leniurla is required to explain the facts. {See my Jeland Li/e^ pages S95 and 427.) XIX.] BANDA. 219 CHAPTER XIX. BANDA. (DECEMBER 1857, HAY 1859, APRIL 1861.) The Dutch mail steamer in which I travelled from Macassar to Banda and Amboyna was a roomv a,nd comfortable vessel, although it would only go six miles an nour in the finest weather. As there were but three passengers besides myself, we had abun- dance of room, and I was able to enjoy a voyage more than I had ever done before. The arrangements are somewhat different from those on board English or Indian steamers. There are no cabin servants, as every cabin passenger invariably brings his own, and the ship's stewards attend only to the saloon and the eating department. At six A.M. a cup of tea or coffee is provided for those who like it. At seven to eight there is a light breakfast of tea^ eggs, sardines, il^c. At ten, Madeira, gin. and bittei*s are broueiit on deck as a whet for the substantial eleven o'clock breakfast, which differs from a dinner only in the absence of soup. Cups of tea and coffee are brought round at three p.m. ; bitters, <&(;, again at five ; a good dinner with beer and claret at half-past six, concluded by tea and coffee at eight. Between whiles, beer and soda water are supplied when called for, so there is no lack of little gastronomical excitements to while away the tedium of a sea voyage. Our first stopping place was Coupang, at the west end of the large island of Timor. We then coast^ along that island for several hundred miles, having always a view of hilly ranges covered with scanty vegetation, rising ridge behind ridge to the height of six or seven thousand feet. Turning off towards Banda we i)assed Pulo-Cambing, Wetter, and Roma, all of which are desolate and barren volcanic islands, almost as uninviting as Aden, and offering a strange contrast to the usual verdure and luxuriance of the Archipelago. In two days more we reached the volcanic group of Bandti, covered with an unusually dense and brilliant green vegetation, indicating that we had passed beyond the range of the hot dry winds from the plains of Cfentral Australia. Banda is a lovely little spot, its three islands en- closing a secure harbour from whence no outlet is visible, and with water so transparent, that living corals and even the minutest objects are plainly seen on the volcanic sand at a depth of seven or eiglit fathoms. The ever-smoking volcano rears its bare cone on one side, while the two larger islands are clothed with vegetation to the summit of the hills. Ooing on shore, I walked up a pretty path which leads to the highest point of the island on which the town is situated, where there is a telegraph station and a magnificent view. Below lies 220 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. the little town, with its neat red-tiled white houses and the thatched cottages of the natives, bounded on one side by the old Portuguese fort. Beyond, about half a mile distant, lies the larger island in the shape of a horseshoe, formed of a range of abrupt hills covered with fine forest and nutmeg gardens ; while close opposite the town is the volcano, forniinjf a nearly perfect cone, the lower part only covered with a light green bushy vegetation. On its north side the outline is more uneven, and there is a slight hollow or chasm about one-fifth of the wav down, from which constantly issue two columns of Smoke, which also rises less abundantly from the rugged surface around and from some spots nearer the summit. A white efflorescence, probably sulphur, is thickly spread over the upper part of the mountain, marked by the narrow black vertical lines of water gullies. The smoke unites as it rises, and forms a dense cloud, which in calm damp weather spreads out into a wide canopy hiding the top of the mountain. At night and early morning it often rises up straight and leaves the whole outline clear. It is only when actually gazing on an active volcano that one can fully realize its awfulness and grandeur. Whence comes that inexhaustible fire whose dense and sulphureous smoke for ever issues from this bare and desolate peed and glossy -leaved, growing to the height of twenty or thirty feet, and bearing small yellowish flowers. The fruit is the size and colour of a peach, but rather oval. It is of a tough fleshy consistence, but when ripe splits open, and shows the dark -brown nut within, covered with the crimson mace, and is then a most beautiful object. Within the thin hard shell of the nut is the seed, which is the nutmeg of com- merce. The nuts are eaten by the large pigeons of Banda, which digest the mace but cast up the nut with its seed uninjui*ed. The nutmeg trade has hitherto been a strict monopoly of the Dutch Government ; but since leaving the country I believe that this monopoly has been partially or wholly discontinued, a pix>C€Neding which appears exceedingly injudicious and quite un- necessary. There are cases in which monopolies are perfectly justifiable, and I believe this to be one of them. A small country like Holland cannot afford to keep distant and expensive colonies at a loss ; and having possession of a very small island where a valuable product, not a necesmry of life, can be obtained at little cost, it is almost the duty of the state to monopolise it. No injury is done thereby to any one, but a great benefit is conferred on the whole population of Holland ana its dep>endencies, since the produce of the state monopolies save them from the weight of a heavy taxation. Had the Government not kept the nutmeg trade of Banda in its own hands, it is probible tnat the wliole of the islands would long ago have become the property of one or more large capitalists. Tiie monopoly would have been almost the same, since no known spot on the globe can produce nutmegs so cheaply as Banda, but the profits of the monopoly would have gone to a few individuals instead of to the nation. As an illus- 222 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. tration of lio>v a state monopoly may become a state duty, let us suppose tliat no gold existed in Australia, but that it had been found in immense quantities by one of our ships in some small and barren island. In this case it would plainlv become the duty of the State to keep and work the mines for the public Ijenefit, since by doing so, the gain would be fairly divided among the whole population by decrease of taxation ; whereas by leaving it open to free trade while merely keeping the govern- ment of the island, we should certainly produce enormous evils during the first struggle for the precious metal, which would ultimately subside into the monopoly of some wealthy individual or great company, whose enormous revenue would not equally benefit the community. The nutmegs of Banda and the tin of Banca are to some extent parallel cases to this supposititious one^ and I l^elieve the Dutch Government will act most unwisely if they give up their monopoly. Even the destruction of the nutmeg and clove trees in many islands, in order to restrict their cultivation to one or two where the monopoly could be easily guarded, usually made the theme of so much virtuous indignation against the Dutch, may be defended on similar principles, and is certainly not nearly so bad as many monopolies we ourselves have till very recently maintained. Nutmegs and cloves are not necessaries of life ; they are not even used as spices by the natives of the Moluccas, and no one was materially or permanently injured by the destruction of the trees, since there are a hundred other ptx)- ducts that can be grown in the same islands, equally valuable and far more beneficial in a social point of view. It is a case exactly parallel to our prohibition of the crowth of tobacco in England, for fiscal purposes, and is, morally and economically, neither better nor worse. The salt monopoly which we so long maintained in India was much worse. As long as we keep up a system of excise and customs on articles of daily use, wliich requires an elaborate array of officers and coastguards to carry into effect, and which ci'eates a number of purely le^al crimes, it is the height of absurdity for us to affect indignation at tlie conduct of the Dutch, who carried out a much more justifiable, less hurtful, and more profitable system in their Eastern possessions. I challenge objectors to point out any physical or moral evils that have actually resulted from the action of the Dutch Government in this matter ; whereas such evils are the admitted result